Telling the people you're apologizing to that you tried to commit suicide effectively because of their criticism doesn't just center yourself over the people you're apologizing to, it frames it as their fault. Real "if you break up with me I'll kill myself" energy
It reminded me of Cait Corrine's "apology" of "I know targeting authors of color by review-bombing their books to boost my own book then lying about it by blaming a fake friend wasn't right... but I was suffering a mental breakdown! I'm trying to get to a better place now, so I hope you can forgive me 🥺"
Yup, I had family do this to me, however I suspected it was performative & basically emotional blackmail. I can be a grade A bastard when needed so I told them exactly how they should do it most efficiently which was the end of that.
@@TheNumnutRandomness is she the one who also blamed the medication Ambien, along w/ the mental breakdown? If so, real Roseanne Barr blaming Ambien for racist tweets energy
@@CLB134 I do not believe she named any specific medication, just that she switched a few months ago- which is what set off her "spiral" (even though the review bombing started in the beginning of 2023 and some authors claimed even back in 2021). I think the Ambien got conflated with her initial apology because it was a ridiculous claim that medication made her racist 😭.
As all of the info was coming out I did worry for a moment how possible it was that he would be in a dark place just by the sheer weight of the consequences for his actions hitting all at once. It truly hurts and can be overwhelming to realise just how much a person really screwed up, and how irreparable that reputation now is, even being 100% deserved. But it doesn't at all mean the information about him should not have come out or that he should've done any of what he did. It's heavy because he really messed up, and how he handled the emotional reaction shouldn't take priority in the discussion over addressing why he's being criticised. He can anonymously call a lifeline or talk to a counsellor for his wellbeing and moving on, and can take the important critique he's receiving without deflecting and making himself a victim.
Boom. :D That's the thing that really flummoxes me about people like James Somerton, Colleen Ballinger, Illuminaughtii, Sophie From Mars, and a few others, honestly! I can't imagine wanting to show my face in public again if I were found justly guilty of sins even half as egregious as what these people have done! (I can't even imagine being able to stomach the *normal* harassment and criticism public figures get, and the added shame of having violated my own principles on top of that would just be too much to bear.) But, then, I'm not a malignant narcissist or the like, so maybe that's my problem here. :D
@@dinosaysrawr don't forget Internet Historian (Anthony McCormack)! Straight up read entire articles without any shame, and never acknowledged anything, even when he was forced to take down videos due to copyright strike.
"I didn't even make that much money because Toronto is an expensive place to live" is an interesting way of saying "I made enough money off other people's work to be able to live in toronto"
What is truly absurd is that he tried to pass off (and still is, seemingly!) his move as strictly necessary for business, as he was getting his indie film business off the ground and insisted that Toronto was the only city that could fulfill his casting and shooting needs. At least according to what I’ve read online from people who live in Nova Scotia, where James came from was home to a robust film scene full of queer talent, ample opportunities for grants, and even annual film festivals. If James was truly strapped for cash he had more than enough to work with at home, but sure, move to the shiny big city and pretend to be a starving artist 🙄
Content creation (before his “movies” obviously) is also a task that can be done from anywhere 🙄 there is no reason he couldn’t be sitting on a farm in the middle of Manitoba with some good wifi paying next to nothing and… save money? Put towards other projects like his films? Donate it in the name of the actual people he stole from? Literally anything but spend it on rent/food in Toronto 😂
He's acting like he made a small mistake. James, you STOLE your WHOLE CAREER. You took credit and profit for other people's words. In a just society, you would be forced to pay restitution. In our unjust society, the best you can do is go get a boring marketing job and go to therapy.
Maybe I‘m weird but what triggered me the most was the smugness with which he presented „his“ thoughts. He knew people watching him will believe that his ideas are super smart, his big brain sees things, analyse them and word them in a very intelligent way. He felt above everyone else for something he‘s not. At all. His demeanor and ductus made me angry. The whole stealing thing is almost a whatever to me. The whole world is filled copied, unoriginal things and ideas. But most people try to keep a low profile and want to not be noticed. But this guy…🤢
His "apology" triggered memories of my abusive ex-husband crying and promising to "do better" and I was not prepared for that. Thanks for pointing out why this wasn't a real apology.
When I was a teenager I told a partner at the time I was going to kill myself because they had caught me in some awful behavior and - so much credit to them - told me "great, so now I have to stay with you because if you try anything people will say it's my fault". I'm really glad I got called out for how horrible using your own life as blackmail for people pointing out your harm to others is. Unfortunately it's way way too common, it's narcissism but not in the way people usually discuss - it's still centering yourself in the world but in a "I'm uniquely awful and broken" way instead of the "I'm uniquely amazing and special" way but both still show the same inability to recognize the humanity of others.
@@iamjustkiwi it's really great that you can acknowledge that behavior and did your best to get better. I did some similar stuff in my teen years; it's really hard to regulate your emotions if no one showed you healthy ways to do it. Here's to continuing to improve and learn.
it's really strange for me because i read about these things before i ever experienced them in real life. when someone tried to use suicide to manipulate me, i was like, really? you're kidding right? i know that is a privileged thing though that i had that education and i hope more people will become educated about these sorts of things to prevent this manipulation in the future. as far as i can tell, most people recognize this behavior for what it is nowadays and people mostly don't get away with it.
James tried to say he "doesn't think those negative things about women and bisexual folks and asexual folks and transwomen and lesbians.." No he doesn't *think* those things! He just *said* them, *wrote* them, *filmed* them, *made money* from them, and repeated several of the same comments across *multiple videos* ! But he would *never THINK* those negative things!
I was amazed that he tried to claim that in his apology just bc i think the only time i ever heard him speak with so much investment and emotion on a subject was when he was saying all those misogynistic and ace/bi/trans/lesbophobic things
Maybe he was trying to claim that he plagiarized those things and doesn’t personally believe them (obviously he’s lying) I haven’t seen the video yet I’m just going off what you’ve said in this comment
SO He didn't mention trans men or nonbinary people who he misgendered and stole from and instead mentioned only trans women who he stole from? Typical transphobe "trans women are the only real trans people" BS *heavy sigh* like the misgenering of multiple transmasc people is jsut being glossed over it's so shit the trans man of colour is jsut completely erased
Point of order, James never uses the word 'plagiarize', he only refers to 'uncredited work'. He accepts no responsibility for any intent in his wrongdoing, he acts like it was all a big mistake. That's why this didn't qualify as an apology to me.
That really pissed me off. As if dropping the links of the authors in his description would allow him to then copy the scripts word for word. He also says "I understand proper citations.. now. Now I do". Shut the hell up you knew what you were doing and intentionally tried to hide it.
I came here to say this. So glad other people caught on to that as well. Also, I get that citation can be confusing or intimidating to people not in academia, but that's no excuse to not try. Especially after people were calling him out for not citing anything, you'd think that would've gotten him to learn how to do it properly. But instead he spun it around as people "harassing" him.
His repeated use of "copy pasting" "adapting" and "referencing" on his dogshit video are very telling He can't admit, for his own reputation, that he did something wrong, ever. He's like saying "oh wow, sorry you thought I was plagiarizing... It must've been super-fucking-hard for you."
James Somerton deactivating his patreon in a panic without a word making it harder for folks to remember/remove their membership to then silently reactivate it with NO COMMENT TO ANYONE is so scummy. That says everything to me right there.
He did make a comment, he just buried it in a 35 minute long "apology" video where he fails to apologize for anything. Treating the announcement the same way his fellow youtube plagiarists treat citing sources, bury it somewhere out of the way where no one will expect it or go looking.
Being youtube villain of the year is a tough competition. Between Collen Ballinger, Iilumignautii, The Completionist and James Somerton. This apology was manipulative and false. Its full of inconsistencies and fallacies.
Colleen Ballinger must feel so snubbed right now. She had the "worst apology of 2023" award in her pocket before James swept in right before the end of the year.
Nah. James' was absolutely horrifying but Colleen's will never be eclipsed by anything. The narcissism, hubris, and deflection all rolled into an admittedly catchy tune, sung with unblinking, wide-eyed passive aggression is a thing of wonder.
@@kyletitterton Couldn't have put it better kitten. James pulled the usual fake apology, just like my sister did and she didn't have to spend an hour putting it together, just a few minutes on Whatsapp. That's just Kindergarden variety of 'woe my knee hurts now' and 'Cathrine did it too' and 'Michael made me do it' rolled into one. Colleen fermented her anger, narcicissm and self-righteousness into a brackish soup of awful.
@@undeniablySomeGuy well, I misread the name Kyletitterton at a surface glance to being some sort of 'Kittenton'... I realized my mistake shortly after but thought it hilarious so I put it in. ;)
A few things you didn't mention: 1) He completely throws Nick under the bus less than a minute after lamenting losing him as a friend- repeatedly saying he didn't write the misogyny or misinformation stuff. 2) He downplays the plagiarism by saying "I didn't think anyone thought I was doing journalism". What the heck does that mean? It's almost as though he's trying to tell us he didn't previously think theft of content was wrong. 3) He said he "loves research" and loves making videos even though I just don't think he has the first comprehension of the work it takes to legitimately put out content. 4) He then attributes the misogyny and other harmful content to being "in a rush to put out videos"- I mean, being in a rush doesn't cause you to put out stuff you don't really think does it? it just reduces your filter.
@@ichbinben.It's like claiming you only said a slur purely because you were "having a heated gamer moment". Pro Tip: If you say something in the heat of the moment or you were rushed, that just means you've been saying or thinking it in private enough for it to become a habit in the first place...
For point 2 I notice a lot of these people want it both ways. They want to make this a full time career but when they get in trouble try to hide behind "these are just silly internet videos!"
A friend sent me the link a couple hours ago, I opened it, heard him start the video saying he tried to kill himself, immediately clicked off; truthful or not thats just such a blatantly manipulative way to start a video where youre supposed to be apologizing for what you did? Fuck that
I wonder what the metrics on that vid were, considering he deleted it and it was 40 mins long. I imagine it would be a lot of people bailing out within only a few minutes, esp since there was no comment section to directly respond to the video in any way.
@conspiracypanda1200 I looked at it maybe 1-2 hours before he had deleted it and it only had about 10.5k views. A lot of people probably either watched someone else’s video about it or read a synopsis somewhere like I did. (It was on Hbomb’s subreddit if you want to read it too.)
I was just browsing the comments at the start of the video and saw he said he attempted su1c1de? and my jaw DROPPED.............. even if it was true he shouldnt have opened with that or maybe even include it in the video at all wtf dude just log off the internet and get a job in a gas station for real
@@conspiracypanda1200 what? when exactly did you see it? Cause I was there within the first hour it dropped; the comment section was open and full of people eviscerating his 'apology'
@@plainjane-sk7rz"I'm not throwing him under the bus... I'm just saying that it really was my fault... That I never read what he wrote!!!" What an ass!
He was leading up to it in every livestream video- how "It's _impossible_ for him to plagiarize b/c Nick ALSO worked on them. And are you calling Nick LIAR?" At least Nick jumped ship before this dreck came out.
@@phucdatbich7333 He did! And James uses basically the exact same approach with Nick as he did with Becky Albertalli! "I never said she was straight!" but just talked about her in a section about the straights. He never said Nick wrote the really shitty bits but he's talking about it in a section where he's saying "I didn't write that; btw Nick and I were 50-50 on this." It's just so shittily implied and it makes my skin crawl.
His apology has been deleted. But not before a large stadium worth of people saw it. Too late, the cat's out of the bag now. And any apology you try to do down the road is now tarnished by this one. I don't envy his position. I hope he gets whatever help he needs and finds another way to make it in this world. He really shouldn't try to have a career in this space anymore though. That ship has sailed. That's something you can attempt if you've made one big mistake. It's not something you can attempt if it's revealed your entire career was a lie.
so it is! I could've sworn I'd watched a vid a few days ago but I see he uploaded another today and that is gone too. :o it was especially foolish to plagiarize people in the very same field and sphere of the same platform. i had only just discovered him, and just like that, he matters no more.
@@Quoxz when i'd checked, the majority of the comments were not having his bs. I saw only one person defending him in the comment section, and they had a hitler profile pic, so like. Yep.
@@tylerc5021 Based on a comment he left on RUclips some people "advised" him to not put out a video like this while he is in such an emotional state. Translated from "marketing expert": a bunch of people called him out on his obvious manipulation tactics and he panicked and deleted it again.
After all the times he deflected the plagiarism accusations with claims of death threats, openng rhe apology with claims of suicidality feels really fucking bad. I've been suicidal. I know what it's like, and I don’t doubt that the consequences of his actions could've gotten him there. But it feels like he's blaming those who exposed his actions for the consequences of his actions and it's an extraordinarily shitty defense mechanism. Frankly, this man doesn’t deserve the space he claimed in our community, and Harry is already doing what he should have done to compensate the people he stole from. Anything aside from refunding everyone who monetarily supported him and giving the rest of it to the plagiarized creators and then leaving this space forever is completely insufficient.
Exactly this, you get it. It was very irresponsible of him to structure it like that. It is a serious event in his life if true, but as Jessie outlined well, it absolutely recentres the discussion on his feelings over the dozens of artists and creators he stole from and buried the work of. Discussion of his wellbeing is for figures in his personal life, not for when he's addressing the Internet on the topic of his victims. No one should want him to die obviously, but we also gain nothing but potential undeserved guilt and a plea for sympathy from him telling us this. It is arguably irrelevant info for him to include in his apology, and definitely not what he should've opened with.
Exactly why I clicked off as soon as he started crying like that. I'm a very forgiving person and it's completely fine to have emotions regardless of gender but he was clearly weaponising it to get a shred of support. My younger sister and I have both had periods of time when we were extremely suicidal (my sister's was much worse with multiple very nearly successful attempts) but even then the only people we ever told were those who absolutely had to know. It just reinforces the stigma that suicide is "selfish" which actively harms people in their most vulnerable state. I'm still very angry with him at this point in time so my feelings/ opinions may change in the future but he's destroyed any good will I had left for him. It's not the easiest to recognise that you've done a lot of wrong and need to atone for your actions, but it's the right thing to do and he could've maybe salvaged his career for some but that "apology" was the final nail in the coffin for him. (Sorry for ranting, I'm just real mad right now 😂)
Not to be an armchair psychologist, but James never seemed to be as strong of a leftist as people said and believed he was. He seems to promote progressive values less because society is unfair to his community and more because society is specifically unfair to him. He always seemed bitter that society denied him the rights and freedom he felt entitled to as a white man because he is gay, and he’s so misogynistic because he wants a group of people to abuse and look down on, like white women who call the police on people of color
@@scottmorrison3929seriously, could you imagine how much he would become a right wing darling and be trotted out like the useful idiot he is (knowing the entire time the average right winger hates the gays)
I can see he’s still using the exact same tactics that hbomb discussed at length… accusations of harassment, victimising himself, ‘apologising’ without actually apologising, promising future content to keep leading his audience on and almost immediately going back into cash-grab mode, NOT. ACKNOWLEDGING. THE FULL EXTENT OF HIS ACTIONS… And so on… I wasn’t even that angry about him before but it’s clear that he will continue to keep misdirecting instead of ever being honest. He had a chance to come clean but he’s acting exactly the same.
That video has already been deleted. But I want to say this: His videos that were (he asserts) not plagiarized, and his videos that he wants to make are still tainted by plagiarism. If he writes a perfect and honest apology, writes all his own scripts from scratch, cites every source professionally, and moves forward as the model of academic integrity, his platform, his reputation, and his finances are still built on a foundation of stolen work, stolen ideas, stolen passion, and stolen attention. He buried other, smaller creatives and used attention they should have gotten for himself. Whether he meant to or not, there is no way for him to continue to produce academic, journalistic, or artistic works for public consumption because his momentum is tainted by plagiarism. You cannot separate out the influence, energy, name recognition, and popularity that he earned for himself from all of those things that he stole. Going forward, anything else that he makes will be seen by an audience that is partly rightfully someone else's, because of his name recognition that is rightfully somebody else's, and simply by being a public figure with a platform that was grown on plagiarism, he will be benefitting from plagiarism all over again. He needs to stop and find a new career because this one cannot be repaired.
It is theoretically possible to come back from this but it would take a lot of hard work, accepting wrongdoing, taking heaps of criticism, and TIME to earn sone good will to come back from this-all things I doubt someone like James could do.
I imagine it would take a metric tonne of accountability and reparations to have any shot, but I agree, it's likely his career here is dead in the water. Unless he can manage to scrape off the very few who subscibe to him for a primary source and don't check others. He certainly didn't list everyone and everything in his 'apology'.
I saw someone suggest he’ll pivot to being the Token Gay on some right wing channel who is willing to complain about cancel culture and the left being too sensitive. I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if his ‘marketing expert’ness would lead him down that path.
Considering how much he seems to hate doing his own writing, maybe he could help someone else do the video work/editing, if that really is his passion. Cuz script writing and research sure ain't it.
Jessie! Honey! You were put into physical harm by him. You got the cops called on you by James. You were hurt by him. You have so much sympathy for him STILL. You are a strong brilliant woman.
@@lillianabright03 The Ace Couple mentioned that in their video involving how Somerton victimized them, as well. I have NO (polite) words for anyone who pulls horrible stunts like that grifter.
I don't think this was just a grift to make money for James - that was just a nice perk. I think the part of being a video essayist that he loved was basking in the adoration that all those stolen voices bought him.
This. He loved the idea of appearing like this smarty pants boy who knew so much and was so respected. He loved the money and he loved the reputation just as much.
@@ChristianCatboy Yup I saw one video of his and only watched for like 5 minutes before I was completely over him. If you really know how to read people you can always tell pretty quickly when someone is completely full of themselves and it's just so grating and hard to listen to
@@Lin_Eileen I'm pretty naive in some ways, from having been a really repressed & sheltered Conservative Evangelical for 30 years, and autistic & trans the whole time without knowing it. So... kinda lame, but I used to get duped a lot by an "authoritative" demeanor - even an empty one - and it took me a lot longer than five minutes this time. It's an opportunity to and reflect and learn, I guess!
I learned from the ace couple that he apparently called the COPS on Jessie falsely accusing her of harassment and death threats?? If that's true the fact that she's giving him so much grace and compassion is so much more than he deserves. She's a goddamn saint.
are you FREAKING KIDDING ME? Falsely calling the cops on a TRANS PERSON IN THE US? Oh man the last flying fck I had for James' wellbeing just left out the window.
And the punchline is ... James Somerton critiqued the police extensively and said they treat and have treated historically LGBT with brutality and cruelty. But he had no problems weaponizing them for his own gain. The damn hypocrisy.
I strongly recommend people familiarize themselves with the term “DARVO” (coined by psychologist Jennifer Freyd) - the Wikipedia article is a good summary. The term describes a powerful person’s attempt to “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender”, and it sounds like Somerton’s “apology” is a textbook example.
You can make a little game of it - add a point under each initial every time he does one - you'll get quite a few by the end (by the end of most youtube drama apologies really)
Raised with DARVO from birth, which sucks, but the upside is that I’m fcking goated at spotting it and dissecting it now. Laughing in the face of DARVO because it’s so clockable and ur not afraid of them anymore is also fantastic btw Get a little safe bubble of peers and laugh at your abuser for days folks
The fact that one of the biggest complaints against James is the way he constantly centers himself and people like him in his conversations, to the exclusion of others, and he proceeded to center his feelings immediately in his 'apology video' really just proves everyone right.
My favorite part was when he talked about things that "ended up in the videos". It's such a way of putting it that completely separates him from the action, as if the words just sneaked in without him noticing or participating in any way
I remember watching the Hbomberguy video and a reoccurring feeling in my gut was just "I'm really glad I'm not James Somerton right now." Even though he'd taken so much from other people and was happy to let it be misunderstood as all his own work, there was still that sizeable ball of pity I held for him sitting in the pit of my stomach as the video kept going on on. I can't imagine how soul-crushing it must have felt to watch that video and realize just how thoroughly Hbomberguy made his arguments and dismantled Somerton's past defenses. But the simple fact of the matter is that he had a career based on taking other people's works and claiming them as his own and this has made all of the good-faith and good-will towards him sour. Somerton is going to have to accept that people are mad at him, distrustful of him, and will be scrutinizing all of his past and future statements from now on; and it is simply because of his own actions. He probably saw himself as being a microphone for queer analysis, but from how many people he quoted verbatim without credit, an argument could be made that he was really a figure of queer erasure this whole time. How many different writers, editors, and creatives did he take words and arguments from wholesale and regurgitate them under the "James Somerton" brand? Of the tapestry that is the history of queer analysis and critique, Somerton was fine with his name replacing the actual people who wrote his words. This isn't even speaking of the misinformation or misogyny he is rightly under scrutiny for now. I don't how honest Somerton is being in his apology, from what I know about him now I know he isn't an honest person. But if he is genuinely struggling to process his emotions I would tell him to strongly consider finding a therapist who can help him process this, I know he can afford it. This isn't a situation you can simply fix. He is going to have to take responsibility for what he's done and how he reacts from this, because right now he is trying to make other people take responsibility for his mental health when they react accordingly. He tied his financial future and career to what he posts on RUclips and he frankly should have known this was irresponsible because he's had individuals notice and call him out for his plagiarism before. But he kept going. This was always going to happen eventually. It's not Hbomberguy or anyone else's responsibility over how he reacts when the grift is over.
This 💯. Also he is in Canada where free healthcare and mental healthcare is available to him. The people he falsely accused and attacked may not have those same support systems. He stole from creators that are no longer with us and are unable to receive the credit they deserve.
I absolutely believe it fucked him up that bad mentally. AS I understand it, public shame is psychologically devastating because it challenges the identity claims we make about ourselves, AND it challenges our right to even *make* identity claims about ourselves - in other words, to declare who we are and what we're about. Anyhow, being stripped of that by public shame uniquely fucks a person up. Of course that doesn't mean people shouldn't be exposed for their damaging actions. Anyhow that's why I try to keep my howls of spiteful internet glee to a minimum. It's too tempting, but it is damaging too.
It was kind of incredible that the one time he said he DIDN'T write something (all the acephobia, women hating shit) was the one time he actually DID write something. Just incredible.
You know what sort of bugs me? The dude is from a part of Canada that has a noticably strong Queer Community. He would've been able to find easy ish community support, and instead, he was in it for himself, like a proper business Major.
Going by what he has to say about the AIDs crisis, how he treated queer RUclipsrs, I can only imagine he didn’t have enough respect for that community to… engage? Be part of it? Open up?
in the comments of the Plag video, other people claiming to be business/marketing majors were saying this mindset and approach to business *("F*CK YOU GOT MINE")* is encouraged. I'm starting to believe it's true.
My grandfather used to tell me: "We all make mistakes, its a part of life and growing. You'll know youre a grown man when you start taking responsibility for your own actions... And you'll know you're a good man when you start taking responsibility for your emotions. Its okay to feel however you need to feel but its never okay for you to blame others for your feelings." Anytime someone blames others for their mistakes or feelings i think of that. Especially when it involves self harm.
You are so empathetic toward someone who has not shown you the same level of care. You actually put in the work and you have the career James Somerton wishes he could have because of that work. This is why you have our respect.
He personally went after Jessie during that whole ‘I can’t get into Nebula because they hate cis gay men!’ debacle and she was incredibly kind and tried to be understanding at that time as well.
I really do admire her for that... it's incredibly easy to just write James off as a monster for what he's done because it really is bad and he's an adult but really he is not yet, just a misguided child stuck in a man's body and he needs to learn how to move on... but I'm not sure if he will ever learn. It's a difficult situation and I hope he can get the help he needs to get through it safely and with some dignity in tact but I'm just not sure he can... sorry for the wishy washy but I'm just not sure because I've seen some serious solipsism in my days and this takes me back to my worst times in life seeing all this. I just don't want anything to do with this guy I don't wanna hear about him anymore but I admire people like Jessie so much for being able to put up with it and listen to him so deeply and analyze what he's doing, for me it's just tiring and makes me wanna kms so I'm taking a step back from it all
Yea, the kicker for me was that he didn’t respond directly to a single victim. It was all dodgy, and sidestepping the point and then recentered on himself. The endpoint of the video was to move the narrative back to the plans he has to comeback from this… lots of “sorrys” but no apology found
I’m not a lawyer, by any stretch of the imagination, but I think If he does that it could bite him in the ass in case they decide to sue him. Cheers. Edit: typo and punctuation
tbf, it'd be hard for him to respond to a single victim given the vast amount of plagiarism he's done. I wouldn't be surprised if James doens't even remember who he plagiarized from. He clearly doesn't respect the original authors enough to share them with his audience, so why would he bother remembering who they are?
I loved James Somerton. He was ones of my favorite video essayists. He was one of the only two creators I supported on Patreon. I felt like my trust was betrayed by him and he didn’t even steal from me. I can’t imagine how the people he plagiarized from feel.
The money he took from his supporters might not legally be theft , but morally it was absolutely theft by deception. He misrepresented himself to us, he lied and was given money based on his deception. He's a fraud and a cheat and he stole your money, and our time, and the respect and resources that rightfully belong to the creators he ripped off. So, yeah, I would say he did steal from you.
@@parabolicpanorama Don’t blame viewers. They were the ones ripped off and most people likely didn’t know all this before the video. Even Hbomberguy said that his viewers/supporters aren’t to blame here.
I feel for Somerton if he was pushed to the point of self harm. But the truth is that no, HBomberGuy and Todd in the Shadows and those that pointed out his actions are not responsible for this. James Somerton is responsible for that. Pointing out the problems with his videos is simply that. Somerton does not get to point a finger at those that exposed his actions.
@@nicmanza4657 I will mention, though - I wonder if he allowed himself to do this based on the popular notion of youtube videos. I mean, look at the words we use to describe the work of youtubers - "Content". It makes it seem like we are devaluing the work put into them and discussing soap or some other product. When we all use terminology that devalues the work put into these things then people like Somerton are allowed to delude themselves into thinking it's okay to steal it... Just a passing thought.
the part where he goes "nick, if you're watching this, im sorry and i miss you" made me pause the video to laugh for like 5 minutes like what kind of romcom 2nd act betrayal shit are they on
I firmly believe there was something going on behind the scenes there... I'd bet my last dollar that james was (and still is) romantically pining for nick, who likely isn't interested
Like what is this shameful shit? Either this is entirely fabricated publicity shit (one way or another) or Nick totally lost his number and blocked him everywhere and youtube is the only way that Somerton can hope to contact Nick. Frankly, I don't know which is more embarrassing
Hbomberguy very carefully carved out an out for Nick (deserved or not), so, even if Nick was in on the plagiarism, it would be career suicide to forgive Sommerton at this point. But...like...Nick had to have known, right? They were roommates. He had to have seen Tinker Bells and Evil Queens around the apartment. How fundamentally incurious are we willing to believe he is, that he never once saw a pile of other people's writing and noticed the similarities in the videos? Isn't that as damning?
@@Romanticoutlaw Nick was self proclaimed Ace. James lost a friend and partner. I find it difficult to believe Nick didnt know about the plagiarism as widespread as it was.
JS reminds me of a boyfriend I had who after an argument would do something mildly self-destructive like get really drunk, then call me up and say "Look what you made me do" which was exactly JS's tactic. What HBomberguy did was perfectly legitimate professional criticism. Somerton's arrogance and insistence on being the primary queer voice on YT caught up with him after his refusal to address previous concerns raised about his professional ethics, responding purely with accusations of homophobia 🙄
Because I had an ex-husband who pulled the same manipulative tactics, I saw right through Somerton's "apology." I cancelled my Patreon to him early this month. $3 down the drain.
I’ve got experience on both sides of that (I was a shitty teenager who tried to guilt trip, then I had someone pull this on me literally within months) - this is EXACTLY the energy it has.
My ex Was like that, too. He was drinking and Smoking "broccoli", using a E scooter, got caught by the police and got his license removed. That was my fault. 🙄
I’m pretty sure he, in the video, predicts that defense, and mockingly brings up the fact that he himself is bi Guess Jimmy was too busy stealing to listen to the words in the video that fucking atomized his career and total public reputation
It's actually shocking to me that he didn't mention the Todd In The Shadows video. Because, to me, honestly it was the worst one out of the two of them. Not only did he get a lot of things wrong, in extremely hurtful ways, but there was also this conspiracy doomer-ish tint to it which is a horrible thing to put out to his fans. It's so obvious that he is counting on Todd having a smaller following, and thus, he feels like he can get away with not acknowledging it.
i think he was insinuating that he lied on james. bc james said something to the effect of "ppl are now piling on and making up things, but not hbomberguy" can't remember what he said verbatim but that stuck out to me.
I lost a friend because of James Somerton years ago. I don't feel sympathy because I was harassed, stalked, and sent ugly, hateful messages because I tried to point out the videos were flawed, woefully watered down, and needed extra work put into them. Said "friend" turned into a person hellbent on ruining my life. At that time, I didn't know who James Somerton was. I just noticed the videos were lackluster and needed some extra work and some information felt like it was someone trying to speak for the entire LGBTQ+ community, which was pretty offensive. We're not a monolith and our experiences are very diverse. It's offensive to silence the rest of us. That "friend" still sends me hate messages now and then. That "friend" was manipulated and charmed by the idea of someone presenting themselves as a queer figurehead. No more figureheads. It just hurts people. This isn't a monarchy.
with what's come to light, I hope your ex-friend at least feels a little foolish, and that you haven't been subjected to how they feel one way or the other
"No more figureheads. It just hurts people. This isn't a monarchy." Already one of the best sentences I read in 2024. Should be shouted from every rooftop. Thank you so much for this!
As a heterosexual, cisgender man, I just want to say that I hadn’t heard of James Somerton until the Todd in The Shadows video, so I really appreciate all the discourse around this. Learning a lot. Thank you!
The fact is Somerton is banking that the majority of his views comes from people that don't follow a larger community of creators. He's playing for the ignorant and his apology video isn't for us. It's for people that don't know better and don't know how much he was exposed.
Considering how badly he checked up, including erasing his whole channel, any of those out of touch fans will be asking "what happened to James?" And go googling.
That backfired for illuminaughtii. The larger community just didn't let it go. But his fraud is much worse than hers because he poses as an intellectual. He wants people to think he said those things and the gaslightimg won't stop. Even the attempted suicide is Narcissism 101.
Ugh, I applaud you for making it through that whole video. I bailed when he started begging for a second chance. It was exactly what I expected from him, I unsubbed from him months ago. Not because I knew about the plagiarism but because I couldn't stand his smug demeanor.
I remember finding his videos a bit boring, because they were retreading topics I already heard other RUclipsrs cover (I guess that feeling was justified lol) but I subbed anyway to "support a queer creator" 😅
I remember feeling almost guilty for being unable to make it through any of his videos. His content looked interesting, but he just rubbed me the wrong way. I guess I feel vindicated, now?
@@Zosio I hope so because I am a straight dude who's subbed to lots of lgbtq+ creators. Some of them make videos on subjects I like such as video games, tech and movies but I'm also subbed to ones primarily covering gay or trans issues I feel deserve my attention and time to educate myself on their struggles and accomplishments. James is the one I couldn't handle.
it's wild how these "apologies" somehow always end up with "please let me avoid the consequences of my actions". Like, the goal of an apology isn't so things can return to the status quo and you can go back to making money and getting a platform.
To be honest. Pro wrestlers are pretty good actors. Just look at John Cena & Dave Bautista.. they are far better actors than guys like vin Diesel or Jason Statham or Momoa.
I literally write other people's videos because I enjoy writing and research and have a horror of being on camera. There are plenty of people out there like me. If I knew someone with a good on-camera presence and an interest, I'd start a channel with them in a heartbeat. Somerton didn’t have to do it this way.
Totally; Simon Whistler’s mini-empire is a testament to this type of setup 😄 Simon is really engaging though; I don’t think I ever saw a full James Somerton video because I didn’t like his style of delivery.
@@jaymogrified Good point, Simon is a good example of what JS could have done, allow queer voices to be heard if they didn't like the camera. But no, he had to put himself front and center for it all.
@@jaymogrified well, his "style of delivery" wasn't even a style, since it was mismatched with the stolen words he was reading. There was someone that always felt off to me about his videos, and I think it's picking up on how he doesn't actually have a "voice".
The fact that he reactivates the patreon and claims the Telos money was going to go to artists once they got some movies off the ground only tells me that he STILL HAS OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. James did not learn anything and is frankly not ready to atone. His only option now is to never work on RUclips again Hope you have safe travels Jessie!
Bottom line on James' mental state: if this situation has truly put him in a dark place, returning to his channel, the ultimate source of this strife, is completely counterintuitive. There is no world where a sensible psychiatrist would advise you to go back to where or what put you there in the first place. The best thing for both him and those he's wronged (financial debts aside) is for him to get off social media
A friend just introduced me to the expression "may they be as happy as they are far away" and I can think of few people who merit receiving that expression more than James. I am a bit haunted by being almost convinced to give re: last year's tearful "this may be the end of my channel" plea video, but couldn't afford to without removing money from the actual friends whom I've supported on patreon. Thankfully, I didn't, but the shame of almost falling for his lies hurts, and I can only imagine how much it stings for those who did give.
While I don't believe for a second that Nick is innocent here or that he could not know about the plagiarism at the very least, the way James blamed him for apparently writing something I know for a fact James himself said in a podcast style, conversational, unscripted video is... chef's kiss, honestly. Beautiful. Love it. 10/10. Truly, what a guy. Upstanding friend right there, on top of everything else.
I can kind of believe Nick didn't know about the plagiarism, seeing how Hbomberguy's video showed instances of Nick posting excerpts from upcoming video scripts that turned out to be plagiarized and saying, "Look what James wrote! He wrote this bit!" It's just so easy to get caught, it's weird that he would be so open and public about that.
@@eyesofthecervino3366 The same way any plagiarist openly and publicly says "look at what I wrote!" and expects not to get caught, I guess. I really don't understand how saying that proves anything. I don't see how he could live and work with James and know absolutely nothing about his method. Even if he somehow didn't, the accusations of plagiarism aren't new, there is no way he never googled a line of one of the videos that people had pointed at, just out of curiosity or even to have solid arguments to defend James. I just don't believe it. Also... some of the videos were so heavily plagiarized one has to wonder, if Nick, the cowriter, wasn't participating in that, what the hell was he even writing? The three lines where the misogyny was inserted? Idk None of this is proof against him either, just my thoughts.
@@apffh Fair. I guess I'm content to attribute it to laziness -- Nick doesn't seem to have had a fleck of intellectual curiosity to him. And while the plagiarism was pretty blatant, posting "This is the thing James wrote!" really hurts the plausible deniability narrative of claiming you just forgot to properly cite sources, which seems to be the defense James was angling for.
I hate when people try to erase and pretend, we don't exist, I am asexual and my brother is aromatic we are both out , we breathe the same air as everyone else, we bleed red like everyone else, we are real people too, so why can't we get along as normal people?
@@pinkcupcake4717 I don’t think they’re talking about privilege. It’s not just a sign of disrespect, it’s a sign of pure contempt, as if we were some sort of slime mold. We are humans, too. I think that’s what they were saying, and I agree. There’s too much of that in the world.
I think some people are so deeply repressed and disgusted by their own urges and weird secrets, that they project the grossness onto folks who don't struggle with the same. Obviously, not everyone. There are people who understand ace folks exist and still hate that reality. But it seems there is also a disbelief that others do not wrestle with creepy kinks, or that a gay man could mange to reproduce, or that bi people must only "be" whatever sexuality that is represented by whatever partner they currently have. It's really sad and creepy :C
So, so many excuses... And he wouldn't have "apologized" if he didn't get painted into a corner. He had many chances to come clean. And on top of it all, he's worried about saving his youtube career? He needs to stop. He should sell his equipment, pay back the Telos backers, and do something else with his life.
OMG Jessie I wish you didn't take so many bullets for the rest of us, but unfortunately I'm going to be a coward and watch his "apology" by proxy via your channel. But, as I am a proper capitalist, at least the payment for my eyeballs goes to you and not him...
Matriarchetype is a trans streamer and she filmed a reaction, if you want to hear his actual words. I couldn't keep listening to James' voice because he's so manipulative.
"I didn't think we were doing journalism". This sticks out to me - putting aside the dishonesty, one of the reasons Somerton stole so much is that despite presenting himself as an intellectual, he considers video essay work to be unserious, like tiktok skits or RUclips poops. I believe he is sincere in this - which is bananas considering the income he was making, but some people just aren't great at thought.
I totally feel your pain when you talk about James being hurt and that you don't want that. But... there is a huge difference between the harassment that you experienced by JK and her fans, and what James experiences. You did nothing wrong, you were attacked for simply existing. He knew what he was doing and I can't understand how he couldn't be prepared for it to come out one day. That doesn't make it any less hard, but there is a difference in "victimhood". (I hate that word, but right now I can't think of a different one.)
its about the chain of cause and effect and then whether the causal factors are just causes or not. Justice and Consequentialism. Apologises about how long it has taken to post the video but decided that waiting perhaps another hour or two to record it (you know when the non verbal cues films use to provide emotional based confirmatory and key to the medium visual back up for the portrayed narrative to flesh it out wouldn't be there) Knowledge: He knew what he was doing it s factually (more important in this context also provably) false for him to claim ignorance about the harms done - and lets please be mindful of the double whammy here. Some of the still very much alive victims of his plagiarism brought the harm against them to his attention, in my view that paved the road to later malfeasance. What about the harm which doesn't allow for the range of cultivated misinterpretation or heck even unreasonable levels of doubt via individual modular interpretation - the financial defrauding of a bunch of people via an investment scam. in a film production company that has made zero films, where he just lied. You are telling me he has burned through at a conservative estimate 140,000 USD in a year? Why is that conservative? That's less than his patreon + the 64k raised for the production company raked in last year based on if everyone was a lower tier subscriber and takes into account lowest subscriber figures graphtreon.com/creator/jamessomerton his paid subscriber count went up a further 1000 from April this year so he has been pulling in more than the 8k per calendar month he made in 2022 when he had a third fewer paid subscribers. He is moving in with his parents after almost 9 months of 10k pcm - all who financed him have been defrauded and victimized and also made unknowingly and unwittingly an accomplice in the marginalisation and harm done to the people who actually did the work he passed of as his.
Honestly I'm sort of surprised how badly he did this apology video. He had so many years of other creators' apology videos to directly steal the good parts from? Bro you've been training for this.
@@SorowFame apparently, the response must've been REEEEEEALLY back bc he dirty deleted after 8 hours loool Luckily there are reuploads that we can watch guilt free
i just got out of the hospital 2 days ago after an attempt. the way james talked about his attempt with such clear intent to manipulate was awful. but at the same time i empathize so heavily with his situation as another recent inpatient. i am glad he deleted the video, for his sake and the sake of his victims.
He did (or at least thought he did), but he's still so delusional that his offer was just a massive poorly thought-out nothing that would never work the way he seems to think it'll work.
@@StargazerSkyscraper he said he reached out to hbomb & his editor to help with the funds, but like, hbomb's editor has come out and said this hasn't happened at all.
lol, "my friend is asexual". Always people being like, "I'm not racist/queerphobic, I have friends in the minority," while actually being phobic (known many cases). Also, as an asexual, I have met acephobic asexual people online and irl. Your labels never make you immune of being hateful and/or ignorant about others, regardless of similarities.
The thing that pisses me off about the "apology" is that James instantly made it all about himself. Instead of mentioning anyone he'd wronged, he lumped them all into some amorphous group and almost exclusively talked about himself and how this all affected him.
the only time saying unalive doesnt make me cringe was once in an online class someones little sister sat in on our history class and the teacher said unaliving instead of murder this is barely relevant i just wanted to tell someone about it
I'm not sure Jessie might want to monetize this one, so is okay to be as frank as possible and say things as they are. James Somerton is the kind of guy to make suicidal threats to shut people up, and will never admit he's wrong. There's no turn around it.
It's a way to avoid having a video blacklisted. Monetisation is one part, but if a video gets demonetised for things like discussing "sensitive" topics, such as gay people existing, it also gets hidden from the wider youtube audience.
I don't believe him. As far as I'm concerned he owes me $120us for two year subscription to his patreon. What I heard was him begging Nick to come back. His tears wasn't for the apology but for what he's lost.
only six minutes into this but i’m just really struck by what a kind, empathetic, thoughtful person you are, for how much understanding you’re giving this asshole (and how much empathy you consistently show in all your videos). being one of the people harmed by him he seriously does not deserve your kindness, but the fact that you are able to give him the benefit of the doubt re: his mental health while also rightfully and firmly criticizing his terrible actions & insincere “apology”, shows immense character on your part. your kind, smart approach to speaking on controversies like this one is truly inspiring and our community is so lucky to have you ❤
Something I also noticed in the 'apology' is that he said part of the problem was that they were making videos they didn't want to make and rushing videos out, which felt like a slap in the face of those who supported him when there were many times that viewers told them not to feel any pressure to release to schedules or cover topics they didn't want to. James set his own Patreon goals, including promising to make videos on specific topics, James wasn't working for a boss, it really felt like he was trying to push some of the blame on the audience who had supported him. Honestly this whole situation is devestating, but it has made me as an individual realise that I need to take responsibility for ensuring the content I consume and the people I support, are putting out work that deserves that support.
My post is what mental gymnastics does to a brain. Spread it out between brains! Smart! (I feel like that sounds rude? I hope not. I meant it to be true but silly, & not rude to y'all!)
The thing that got me is that he is taking NO responsibility for his actions and thinks he wants to come back. He talks about it like so cavalierly and refuses to accept that his past work and potential new work are unwanted and hurt people. It was so frustrating watching the video. The whole video is him trying to minimize the issues he created. Imo he needs to go away from the internet and find a way to pay the ppl he stole from without un privating the old. I agree with you on all this. I just can’t say how frustrated this has been to watch
The whole thing felt like he needed more time away. It’s clearly too fresh to him. The whole video read like the kind of apology me and my sisters would give each other immediately after getting in fights as kids. We didn’t mean them, we said what we thought would get us out of trouble, we grasped at every small thing around the matter except the bad thing we did. I reeks of someone who hasn’t allowed themselves enough time to think over the scale of what they did. None of the appeals Sommerton thought up would work, none could match the harm done. I don’t think bringing the videos back and using whatever imprecise methodology to give the money back to the creators does the trick when the „glory“, the Audience and attention would remain on Sommerton. He kept bringing up him putting names places, as if that’s the part that mattered, not the copy pasting. It’s like he doesn’t get it. He brings up he wants to be a „shining example“ of how not to plagiarize, but when his entire catalogue is a sloppy collage of others peoples‘ thoughts, how on earth does he expect his audience knows he can pick up a pen himself. It’s like somehow Sommerton still thinks of himself as a creative despite never creating anything. He has nothing to drive a new audience because his portfolio can be thrown out entirely. I want to be as sensitive as I can to his situation. I do believe him about the attempt as it would cruel not to. I liked how you pointed out this not being good for him because it’s really not. I’ve already seen sickening stuff of people claiming he’s faking or farming sympathy. I often worry we are nearing a point in the internet where therapy speak and true crime talk causes people to over analyze every online interaction and invent bad intentions behind every gesture. Hell my sister from across the room said „I think he’s a narcissist.“ I don’t think that’s helpful. I don’t think that’s productive. It’s why I feels so gross about how quickly and immediately discourse about that section turned into „he’s manipulating“ His tragic act, was then turned into just another bad thing James did. Rather than the serious event it was. Look, threatening suicide was one of the textbook moves my abuser used to keep me close to her. And to see people compare that to Sommerton talking about his at a admittedly wholly inappropriate (not to be done during apology) time is a little off putting. I believe in severity in scale, I don’t think he’s satan for it, but I can’t speak for the rest of the internet. They’ll take it and run, and have been. Within days he’ll get the Ballinger treatment, and it’ll get brought up and disected over and over again. Which would be nightmarish. Frankly I’m just facinated by the video because it says so little. He’s doesn’t properly apologize, dedicates himself to the wrong choices, thanks Bombe for creating a fund which wouldn’t have existed if he didn’t rip off people’s work, somehow believes his skills in Ctl c translates into video scripting. Again spoke like a guy who it hasn’t fully sunk in for. It’s over, James. There’s no going back, there’s no turn the videos back on and give the money back, there’s no reasons to turn patreon back on, no let me make totally new videos, there’s no giving the crowdfunding money to „queer artists“ to make movies because they aren’t getting made. It’s over. It could be a lack of appreciation for the art of criticism or analysis, or a lack of appreciation of said criticisms as works which leads to this level of delusion in his position. I am not convinced one can simply will out a video essay, they have to have thoughts to put in them. It’s as if he got out of this situation, looked at the works he ripped off and thought „I can do that“ He seems to think he, in a matter of months, can turn things around and write essays of the quality he stole because he does not appreciate the skill, the time, the intellect, required to make them. And because all that, he cannot see it’s over. The queer authors he plagiarized deserve recognition beyond their connection to the Sommerton drama, and that’s the sucky thing about this.
It's not good for his mental health to go back to video essays. Whatever he puts out will inevitably be shit and ripped to shreds. James is severely under-estimating the years of practice, dedication and trial and error to craft an engaging essay.
You hit the nail right on the head. As for the narcissism thing, I think that *could* be productive, but only if it comes from a place of understanding the mindset of someone with that personality disorder. He may be fully incapable of honest introspection on his own and is likely in a great deal of very real pain about all this. What he needs is a community who can help him figure this stuff out, without enabling more abusive behavior. A therapist who knows how to help abusers recover. And it's such a shame that he's alienated basically the entire queer youtube community, because we could've maybe helped him get there. Here's hoping he has irl people instead, who he can trust to support him. Otherwise I forsee a descent into fascist ideology in his future, because he's easy prey to that crowd right now. I hope it doesn't go that way.
@16:00 When she mentions that Sumorton said "I'm sorry to the ace people whi felt delegitimized by my words" that... ooh that. I grew up with an incredibly narcissistic and manipulative parent. And whenever she "apologized" for things, she never said, "I'm sorry I did this to you" or "I'm sorry my actions had these consequences". She ALWAYS said, "I'm sorry you felt that way." Taking no blame and turning the blame onto me (and my siblings) for reacting to her in a way that she didn't like. So Sumorton doing that is just... *internal screaming*
I couldn't get past 1:13 of the "I'm sorry" video. It was so disgusting. And I'm not one of the people that had works or money stolen from. I can't even imagine how disgusted those that were felt after that first bit.
[Update: James has already taken down the apology. Guess he didn't like the overwhelmingly negative response.] I was a huge fan, Patron, and Telos donor. I'm going to triple check that I'm not giving him money but I'm also going to contact Patreon and ask that they drop him. He has engaged at minimum in unethical behaviour, potentially fraudulent, and maybe even against Patreon TOS. Anyone who uses Patreon should also contact them. Somerton should _NOT_ be allowed to continue grifting money.
Oh dear, Jessie. It is awful that someone ruins things for the rest of the group. The timing could not be worse. I'm glad you shared your frustration. I'm with you in your sympathy/empathy in the depressive feelings that could lead one to self-harm. I really hope James has learned from all of this, even if his "apology" sounded like an advertisement for himself. Lots of love to you, and the whole community. I'm here for you. Have a great holiday with your family! ❤
I watched James' video go up, down, and the community post happen in real time and I want to share as much of the story as possible - because there are certain things that can't be archived/re-uploaded (this is cross-posted yet written before I watched this video. Jessie, we're echoing each other a bit here and I consider that an honor): He's already taken it down replacing it with a community post (comments off) pre-accusing people of uploading it to mock his mental health (no James, the several k comments all acknowledged that's *serious* and even *empathized* but it's manipulative to bring up at the top of an apology). Piles more guilt by adding how recently he made it after release from a crisis center so he's going to 'try again' after giving himself more time. P.S James won't remember me, but I have over 20+ years in Psych (with a subspecialty in Human Sexuality and Gender Studies) however, I remember him trying to degrade me in a chat until I mentioned this, he tried to counter it, - and a few people who'd seen me do support and interventions on other creators comment sections verified it - I *never* downplay the suffering of others. I am, however, very displeased by the narrative being attempted here. (I read swaths of comments and replies). No one was cruel. [Edit for further archiving: I literally read hundreds of comments and sub comments and there were even people telling others to check their language to ensure it was clear that things like "this is a bad idea, you shouldn't be here" ect was clear to mean *RUclips* not misread as "alive on the planet"] There were actually many people sharing their own struggles with SH ect, but (correctly) pointing out that you do NOT start an apology by stating how severely *you* are affected. I'm not saying this to slander or critique. I'm saying this for the literal THOUSANDS of people who, in good faith, shared their *personal stories* in good faith that have now been *literally erased* because their compassion and empathy didn't give him the *exact and precise* response he wanted. --- After seeing the latest development I'm very irate. Silence is violence. People's voices were erased. Even if someone does re-upload the video all of the people who gave compassion and vulnerability regarding such a deeply personal and sensitive topic in an attempt to connect with him have been reduced to *nothing.* Everyone deserved better.
I actually feel bad that I personally recommend to him reading The Celluloid Closet. In the end, though, what he did with it hoisted himself upon his own petard. If I had known about his earlier plagiarism accusations, I never would have told him about that book.
Right. So. For those unaware, the phrase "silence is violence" is a well-known protest statement (predating 'silence=death'). It's been used in the queer community for decades to mean (among other things) "I will not stand by." Nuking a thread, then accusing the people in it of being awful to you and weaponizing your mental health leaving those individuals with *no way* to disprove the allegations is HARMFUL. I'm not debating this.
The thing is James considers it a harassment when people ask him to take responsibility for what he did. Even if people say, 'we don't wish you harm, we hope you get well, that said this is not a true apology, you're avoiding responsibility' he will take that as a threat, as harassment and when he will tell a story of what happen he will claim that people obliterated him, targeted, hated on him when in fact all the comments I read were just from people expressing their disappointment in a justified way, I can't recall one genuinely hateful comment.
Thank you for speaking up about this, Jessie. Your content is always so deeply meaninful and well-researched. As a biromantic asexual woman I always felt like James Somerton viewed me as something lesser; I was someone who existed in the grey area outside of heteronormativy, but accordign to James' I wasn't queer enough to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community. His whole video on asexuality deeply hurt me as he infantilized us and thought that he could speak on our behalf. When asexual people began to call him out in his comment section we were attacked. Heck, I was even mocked for saying that I said Crowley and Aziraphel's relationship in Good Omens as a "beautiful homoromantic relartionship." He has made some very nasty fly-away comments about aspec people, bisexual women, and trans people that honestly triggered my feeling of self-loathing-- he treated us like we didn't deserve to exist or belong. I'm sorry, but I don't expect his apology--the damage has already be done. I hate to say it, but I do hope that he loses his viewership.
He pulled down the video before 6am. And his patreon is still closed. I am so terribly disappointed in him. I am sorry he is in so much pain. I hope he is able to find peace and able to accept responsibility for his behavior.
Thank you for alwas trying to be a compassionate human being, and in doing so reminding the rest of us to do the same. People like Sommerton try to make our world less - smaller, darker, crueler, less open and safe and loving. You make our world more, even if you sometimes do it imperfectly (because we're all imperfect). May the rest of the holiday season be gentler to you than the last few weeks have.
James just does not need to be online right now, both for himself and us. Thank you for making this video Jessie so I don't have to give him anymore views than I already have.
as someone who has been suicidal and used it as a manipulation tactic, you are not coming across as uncompassionate at all. I think you handled the topic really well, thanks as always for a great video
I agree, as another person who has felt that way and used it against others I think Jessie handles this topic really well. A person's suicidal thoughts and or actions should always be taken seriously, but as she said, you NEVER want to do an apology by framing it with that. It harms the people around you, it harms who you're apologizing to, and it harms yourself in such a big public situation like this.
I'm glad that you both have turned around and are making changes for yourselves. I've been on the opposite end of that manipulation, and seeing people who have reformed from that behavior gives me hope that those who have hurt me in the past can truly change. Proud of you guys!
Jessie, if you're worried about people saying you're trying to benefit from RUclips's attention economy: your commitment to Nebula clearly shows the opposite of this.
it’s absolutely insane that IDUBBZ had the best youtuber apology ever made. it was genuine, it centered the people he hurt, and there was no serious controversy which provoked his response. he just decided that he had done something wrong. if you told me about this like five years ago i would have lost my mind.
Are people really against his apology? Real answer? Because he Didnt have to apologize for 99% of his content. I guess Tana content cop was a bit extreme but his comedy was never that extreme to begin with. He couldve toned downed the content or pushed back instead of being bullied into submission. Theres nothing wrong with being more concious of the community youre fostering and there are ways to make sure youre not attracting too many extremists without sacrificing your entire channel. Idubbbz even kinda started doing that with the newer more videos centered around social commentary but somehow that was not enough. Said many things that were right and decided to walk back everything while calling out his entire fanbase for enjoying it. From rational statements like "Either all of it is okay or none of it is okay" to milquetoast progressive all bigotry is actually realy bad. HES A COMEDIAN SAYING CONTEXT DOESNT MATTER FOR GODS SAKE. Even if you dont agree with me here you certainly can agree doing a complete 180 on your political views is not going to sit right with most of your fan base. Lastly his growth doesnt feel genuine. Based on what he says in this apology this feels like just another phase that hes eventually going to either apologize for or lose all relevancy as his content loses everything that made it stand out in the first place. You want examples of people whos growth feels genuine? Look at maxmofoe or anything4views. These guys come from the same community and look at them now. Theyre more successful than ever making better content than ever and it took 0 apologies, 0 crying over how your content is evil and deplorable and 0 alienating of your fanbase. Thats what genuine growth looks like to me
@@alexisfreeze he had actually hurt people. he had stuff to apologize for. his story about meeting a fan that said he probably didn’t like trans people, seemed to really hurt him and put him on a new trajectory. if that kind of thing happened to me, saying the kinds of stuff he used to say, i would walk it all back too. that would be heartbreaking. taking accountability is often called ingenuine by the sorts of people who don’t want those things framed as a thing which you should take account of. im not surprised you prefer “silent growth,” because hearing people describe exactly what they did wrong might make you think about your own behavior. of COURSE that’s an alienating experience, it should be. that’s how YOU grow, too, which he was trying to encourage. when people try to change, directly stating your intentions is one of the most important parts. facing the things you did wrong, talking about the moments which changed your perspective. these are vital aspects of growth- in my opinion, if you can’t do these things, you haven’t grown at all. that doesn’t mean that everybody NEEDS to do a public apology or whatever. to be honest, the other youtubers you mentioned aren’t really on my radar so they didn’t mean much to me here. but if you’re adverse to the actual Concept of taking accountability, if you’re suspicious on the face of it, i think that’s on you. i really mean that. i’m not saying you’re the worst person in the whole wide world but if you’re uncomfortable about people disowning the sorts of things that you used to like, and growing ashamed of them, that DOES speak to your own internal emotions more than it speaks to theirs. you can’t use that alienation as proof that they’re faking their feelings. you can’t use your emotions to disprove their emotions.
@@tonoornottono his treatment of old fans shows how little he understands empathy, calling them all freaks instead of realizing they could simply be in a similar position that he was, you know understanding why they think the way they do… aka empathy a lot of ppl aren’t “just mad he doesn’t use slurs anymore” as they say. it’s the fact that he, like Ethan, decided to mature right when his content wasn’t profitable due to the transition into more liberal views on the platform. it’s possible that it could be genuine but a lot of people don’t think that bc of that paired with the fact that he seems completely miserable now & lost his personality. it’s not that he just stopped using slurs, he stopped doing weird entertaining shit. there’s also the aspect of how he treated Froggy despite claiming to be “mature”. he didn’t deal with it in a professional mature manner & even put out information that wasn’t completely truthful which sent fans after Froggy - the same thing he claims to hate about his old content. he can absolutely act however he wants but it’s hard for a lot of people to argue that the way he dealt with the situation was mature or professional in any way.
I watched the first 45 seconds of his apology video, which BEGAN with him saying he just got out of the hospital, crying, and vaguely implying he attempted suicide, and I realized it was just going to be thirty more minutes of emotional manipulation. Like, this is EXACTLY the way abusive people respond when they're challenged, they threaten to kill themselves or use the fact that they have attempted it as a bargaining chip. And like, I'm not unsympathetic to how he feels. People make shitty mistakes, people feel intense remorse, people get embarassed or humiliated, I understand all those feelings. But after his patterns of behavior I cannot possibly trust him to treat any viewers with any amount of responsibility in his "apology." I do hope he gets better but I'm not here to be gaslit by him.
I am so glad you are making this video. I don't think you are doing it for attention. I have only ever supported 3 people on patreon, and you and he are two of them. So I am really emotionally invested in this conversation. Thank you for helping me to understand what is going on. Even in your anger, you explain things calmly and with clear reasoning. Have a wonderful trip. Safe travel
I started watching his "apology" when it popped up in my notifications (I forgot that I hadn't actually unsubbed to his channel), and I did immediately feel bad for him. I then realized that this was the emotional response he was looking for, and tried to be critical. But I didn't make it very far into it before I realized that this wasn't an apology at all. "I don't want this to become a sob story". Yes, James, that's exactly what you wanted. You wanted us all to sit there and collectively say "Oh, James, we're so sorry that being called out for your shitty work ethic and comments caused you to do something drastic, here's a cookie and a cup of cocoa and all is forgiven." Like I'd mentioned before, I only got into his work via his horror and Hollywood history videos, and had no idea about any of the rest until this all hit. Am I sorry he attempted to take his own life? Yes, and he should seek help for that. Do I feel bad that he did it because ge got called out for being a terrible person and he is looking to keep on doing said projects and possibly behavior? Not one bit.
I somehow imagine he knows he is muddying the waters with his claims... and I say that the attempt (to muddy the waters)* alone is worth apathy at best and contempt from everyone else. No one else is responsible for his actions leading up to all this... he had been warned multiple times and continued anyway. Feeling sad and depressed because you got caught and it stuck this time, is no reason for anyone else to feel bad for you.
I just can't put a penny in James' pocket. I'm sure queer creators will do full react videos - and I'll watch it there to ensure my dime goes to the community he victimized, instead of into his pocket.
Matriarchetype did a live reaction whilst watching it - I saw it via her channel when I saw that Jessie had made a video regarding JS's apology but I couldn't find the apology on his channel.
This video is so spot-on. My little brother died by suicide a couple years ago. Somerton's "apologies" and now his recent actions are making me absolutely livid. I've been reliving some dark sh!t in the past couple days. No matter if James actually went through with it or not, it's manipulative bs. Even him dying doesn't make him any less of a jerk, I'm sorry. It's tragic, but it doesn't wipe away all the hurt he caused; it makes it worse. Also, this notion that he wa actively being pushed over the edge by hbomb fans needs serious scrutiny. I will not blindly accept the notion that Harris fostered a community akin to k!w!farms or whatever. The people pointing fingers around are opportunistic clowns and they make my skin crawl. I'm so sorry about this week. None of this garbage is your fault. You've been a saint. It's kind of incredible how measured and thoughtful all your responses have been. Alright, take care of yourself!
Instant 'thumbs up' from me for using the word 'suicide' in your video, and not dancing around it. I have no idea how RUclips treats videos that contain that word, if they actually de-monetize it or if that's just a rumor. I'm sure you've heard about it. But sometimes, the best word is the best word, and you said it without hesitation. Kudos.
Its better for him and the rest of the community to stay out of content creation. I hope he gets better, but hes proven to be untrustworthy. James is an adult, and he should be well aware that it is standard practice for plagarists to be blacklisted in any industry. Even if blacklisting isn't standard, no one would trust you anymore.
Not in business. He could very well succeed in business as a plagiarist. Controversial opinion but I don’t think we should hold content creators IN GENERAL as the “voices of civil rights activism.” Maybe cause I work in a community library in Puerto Rico so I’m more hands on and in a less individualized society, it’s unfair to people who are out there in the world fighting head on, for the people we put as the image of the “left” to be RUclipsrs, many who are living pretty comfortable lives compared to the common working class. If they help outside too great, but being a content creator shouldn’t make one’s voice matter more.
@@Jabberwocky112yeah, that's part of the reason people NEED to be able to hold copyright. People steal more maliciously more often and victimize others monetarily because they think they need it to live. Which, money is life, in this country. Homeless people are treated so horribly because they "failed" to procure enough money, then they are used as examples to everyone else to prove that if you don't make money, your life is a failure. If you steal from someone else they are in a worse place mentally and physically. So stealing labor (writing takes a lot of labor) is seen as super disrespectful. Copyright is a defense that people created against our capitalist society/nature.
I decided to watch this before I watch his video, because I wanted to be able to know what to expect. And I'm glad I came here first. CW just all the CW, don't read the rest of my comment if you're not ready to read some candid discussion of suicide. That hits close to home. I've lost a friend to suicide. My child spent nearly a year in and out of emergency rooms and psych hospitals due to repeated attempts, and thankfully the situation is less dire now. But what it really brings to mind is my ex boyfriend years ago, who used threats of this to force me to do everything he wanted after we broke up; he literally said I was a murderer if I didn't do the things he demanded. And it fucked me up for years. It took so long for me to heal enough to learn that my ex boyfriend was an anomaly, and to learn that I could still feel love and compassion for people who were suicidal. Because for a long time I couldn't, because it brought me too close to my memories of that abuse and manipulation. I do know better now, and I've put it behind me as much as I think is possible. So, James Somerton doing this really strikes a bad chord with me. If he really is feeling that way, he needs to seek support of his family, friends, and therapist. He cannot go to the people he has harmed for sympathy. That just is not acceptable. And the people he has harmed include everyone he stole from, and everyone he accepted money from under these false pretenses, and everyone he misled. He cannot put this on his victims.
I'm ngl this might sound kinda cruel, but I have a lot less sympathy for being being s-idal when they're in that state because their bad behavior was exposed. Especially when they try to use that state to gain sympathy. I was banned for a community because of my own behavior. I made sure to not let the mods know I felt like that because I know how that makes people feel.
i've been involuntarily hospitalized on several occasions for suicide attempts. Personally, i feel the way he went about it cheapens suicide and mental illness.
@@neurosophy also, idk how the Canadian mental health system is but i was so doped up on Geodon (an antipsychotic and mood stabilizer) during my stay for months afterwards that i couldn't form a coherent thought and failed an entire semester of college. If he is in a similar state from the strong ass meds they give you, then he shouldn't've be on a camera for at least half a year
Using suicide as a cudgel, which does include how you speak on suicidal thoughts and actions you committed, is manipulative in different context. Jame's video does a perfect job at showing how flagrantly people throw it around. That being said, I fully believe that he attempted to but I wouldn't allow it to discredit the actions he actively committed since the start of his channel.
The thing about the whole "putting videos back online so he can use the proceeds from them to pay back the people he's wronged" thing is that we have to remember he's a business major and this is *exactly* how corporations react to wrongdoing. How many companies have we seen whose idea of restitution is something along the lines of "Okay, so we understand that our actions have harmed the environment, and we want to make amends, so why don't you buys this *new* product of ours and we promise we will use the money you give us to correct some of the harm we did." This is essentially the same as that. It comes from the mindset that in a time of crisis, even one caused completely by your wrongdoing, the most important thing is to ensure that the company survives, that it keeps going one way or another. Which is what James is doing: he's scrambling to find a way to keep his business alive, to ensure he still has some kind of career when this is all over. If people aren't buying your product anymore, try to convince them that your product will be "ethical" now. That way your business still has a future. But that also prevents him from any kind of apology or accountability that might involve him admitting his career is over, that might involve him admitting to things that could cause his fans to not want to watch his videos ever again. But it's also important to note that I dont think this rules out that he is genuinely feeling the things he says that he is, or is going through any of that emotion. I dont doubt that there are people who work in greenwashing corporations who genuinely believe that they are saving the planet. And I don't think it's impossible that James genuinely believed he was fighting for queer rights and liberation, in his own deeply misguided way. But the need to keep the business going always comes before that. After all, I can't help anyone if I'm bankrupt, can I?
honestly, it's incredibly helpful to have someone who has been affected by james to speak up about how his apology isn't acceptable. any of his watchers and patrons have been wronged, it's voices like yours - from those who have had personal experience with him - that hold a lot of weight in this. by you saying this isn't a good apology and isn't adequate to his victims, you're giving far more credibility than anyone who doesn't have as much experience.
JS did this to himself. It's sad that the fallout for his actions coming to light put him in a self-harm mental state. I'm more sorry that he chose to push out a formulaic non-apology video that caused yet more discord and consternation in our community. I hope, truly and honestly he has friends around him that can help him with his distress. But he no longer has standing to make statements and expect the community he harmed to allow him back.
It's sad commentary that when bad actors get called out for their actions, that one of the earliest steps is to produce an "apology" video. Whether or not JS was earnest in his contrition, he's already burned his credibility and any public display of remorse just cheapens the gesture.
I wonder if he ever had the same companionate thoughts about the random queer people he got harassed and run out of the internet for daring analyze and criticize his videos...
He's taken the apology video down just now! I searched for it while watching this video and then went to click on it after and it says 'This video has been removed by the uploader'! Not really surprising considering the response to to it (Great video btw Jessie. Very fair and very empathetic. Thank you for your thoughts and for continuing to speak out for those harmed by James' actions ❤️)
He said all the misogyny and misinformation weren't his because he never wrote anything and then said there are videos that have no plagiarism at all and that he loves doing research. What he actually meant by "research" is "reading other people's research".
What a year of unmasking, self or otherwise! Illuminaughti, Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, James Somerton,, John Fettermann... I hope there will be no more unmaskings for a while to comne till we've recovered from the aftermath! Just the same, I wish us all, especially you, Jesse, a great holiday season and an even better New Year! I am never going to subscribe to Somerton ever again. I've unsubscribed for way less!
This is unrelated but I didn’t have my glasses on for the first sizeable portion of this video and I went “oh, filming in front of your washing machine is a choice…” before putting them on and realizing it was a Cap shield under a shelf 💀
Telling the people you're apologizing to that you tried to commit suicide effectively because of their criticism doesn't just center yourself over the people you're apologizing to, it frames it as their fault. Real "if you break up with me I'll kill myself" energy
It reminded me of Cait Corrine's "apology" of "I know targeting authors of color by review-bombing their books to boost my own book then lying about it by blaming a fake friend wasn't right... but I was suffering a mental breakdown! I'm trying to get to a better place now, so I hope you can forgive me 🥺"
Yup, I had family do this to me, however I suspected it was performative & basically emotional blackmail. I can be a grade A bastard when needed so I told them exactly how they should do it most efficiently which was the end of that.
@@TheNumnutRandomness is she the one who also blamed the medication Ambien, along w/ the mental breakdown? If so, real Roseanne Barr blaming Ambien for racist tweets energy
@@CLB134 I do not believe she named any specific medication, just that she switched a few months ago- which is what set off her "spiral" (even though the review bombing started in the beginning of 2023 and some authors claimed even back in 2021).
I think the Ambien got conflated with her initial apology because it was a ridiculous claim that medication made her racist 😭.
As all of the info was coming out I did worry for a moment how possible it was that he would be in a dark place just by the sheer weight of the consequences for his actions hitting all at once. It truly hurts and can be overwhelming to realise just how much a person really screwed up, and how irreparable that reputation now is, even being 100% deserved.
But it doesn't at all mean the information about him should not have come out or that he should've done any of what he did. It's heavy because he really messed up, and how he handled the emotional reaction shouldn't take priority in the discussion over addressing why he's being criticised. He can anonymously call a lifeline or talk to a counsellor for his wellbeing and moving on, and can take the important critique he's receiving without deflecting and making himself a victim.
Looks like James has lost everything except his audacity.
👏👏👏👏
Boom. :D
That's the thing that really flummoxes me about people like James Somerton, Colleen Ballinger, Illuminaughtii, Sophie From Mars, and a few others, honestly! I can't imagine wanting to show my face in public again if I were found justly guilty of sins even half as egregious as what these people have done! (I can't even imagine being able to stomach the *normal* harassment and criticism public figures get, and the added shame of having violated my own principles on top of that would just be too much to bear.)
But, then, I'm not a malignant narcissist or the like, so maybe that's my problem here. :D
He's definitely lost his shame.
@K.C-2049 , recently, allegations of abuse from previous partners.
@@dinosaysrawr don't forget Internet Historian (Anthony McCormack)! Straight up read entire articles without any shame, and never acknowledged anything, even when he was forced to take down videos due to copyright strike.
"I didn't even make that much money because Toronto is an expensive place to live" is an interesting way of saying "I made enough money off other people's work to be able to live in toronto"
What is truly absurd is that he tried to pass off (and still is, seemingly!) his move as strictly necessary for business, as he was getting his indie film business off the ground and insisted that Toronto was the only city that could fulfill his casting and shooting needs. At least according to what I’ve read online from people who live in Nova Scotia, where James came from was home to a robust film scene full of queer talent, ample opportunities for grants, and even annual film festivals. If James was truly strapped for cash he had more than enough to work with at home, but sure, move to the shiny big city and pretend to be a starving artist 🙄
Content creation (before his “movies” obviously) is also a task that can be done from anywhere 🙄 there is no reason he couldn’t be sitting on a farm in the middle of Manitoba with some good wifi paying next to nothing and… save money? Put towards other projects like his films? Donate it in the name of the actual people he stole from? Literally anything but spend it on rent/food in Toronto 😂
@@MichelleD2023 not to mention the fact that no casting and shooting ever occurred in that project.
I want to call you the F slur to your face.
@@MichelleD2023 It would make way too much sense if James Somerton was a huge fan of RENT.
He's acting like he made a small mistake. James, you STOLE your WHOLE CAREER. You took credit and profit for other people's words. In a just society, you would be forced to pay restitution. In our unjust society, the best you can do is go get a boring marketing job and go to therapy.
Maybe I‘m weird but what triggered me the most was the smugness with which he presented „his“ thoughts. He knew people watching him will believe that his ideas are super smart, his big brain sees things, analyse them and word them in a very intelligent way. He felt above everyone else for something he‘s not. At all. His demeanor and ductus made me angry.
The whole stealing thing is almost a whatever to me. The whole world is filled copied, unoriginal things and ideas. But most people try to keep a low profile and want to not be noticed. But this guy…🤢
He could sell his camera equipment to some film student and work for some soulless AI algorithm video company
This is not an oopsy woopsy fucky wucky! Everything you did is based on lies!
@@OmarAyusoVAHe could sell most of it and still have a nice setup!
@@fxausmwk5671big time. His overworded professor talk self important diction was so off putting.....
His "apology" triggered memories of my abusive ex-husband crying and promising to "do better" and I was not prepared for that. Thanks for pointing out why this wasn't a real apology.
I experienced similar reminders of my abusive ex-fiance. Sending you some internet hugs
hope your in a better place now in your life, that sucks.
When I was a teenager I told a partner at the time I was going to kill myself because they had caught me in some awful behavior and - so much credit to them - told me "great, so now I have to stay with you because if you try anything people will say it's my fault". I'm really glad I got called out for how horrible using your own life as blackmail for people pointing out your harm to others is. Unfortunately it's way way too common, it's narcissism but not in the way people usually discuss - it's still centering yourself in the world but in a "I'm uniquely awful and broken" way instead of the "I'm uniquely amazing and special" way but both still show the same inability to recognize the humanity of others.
@@iamjustkiwi it's really great that you can acknowledge that behavior and did your best to get better. I did some similar stuff in my teen years; it's really hard to regulate your emotions if no one showed you healthy ways to do it. Here's to continuing to improve and learn.
it's really strange for me because i read about these things before i ever experienced them in real life. when someone tried to use suicide to manipulate me, i was like, really? you're kidding right? i know that is a privileged thing though that i had that education and i hope more people will become educated about these sorts of things to prevent this manipulation in the future. as far as i can tell, most people recognize this behavior for what it is nowadays and people mostly don't get away with it.
James tried to say he "doesn't think those negative things about women and bisexual folks and asexual folks and transwomen and lesbians.."
No he doesn't *think* those things! He just *said* them, *wrote* them, *filmed* them, *made money* from them, and repeated several of the same comments across *multiple videos* !
But he would *never THINK* those negative things!
I was amazed that he tried to claim that in his apology just bc i think the only time i ever heard him speak with so much investment and emotion on a subject was when he was saying all those misogynistic and ace/bi/trans/lesbophobic things
When a person does sexist things, or says sexist things, excuse me for not taking them at their word when they say they aren’t s misogynist.
Yeah, this duck quacked waaaaaay too much to be perceived as anything else. The dude is a gross misogynist, plain and simple
Maybe he was trying to claim that he plagiarized those things and doesn’t personally believe them (obviously he’s lying)
I haven’t seen the video yet I’m just going off what you’ve said in this comment
SO He didn't mention trans men or nonbinary people who he misgendered and stole from and instead mentioned only trans women who he stole from? Typical transphobe "trans women are the only real trans people" BS *heavy sigh* like the misgenering of multiple transmasc people is jsut being glossed over it's so shit the trans man of colour is jsut completely erased
Point of order, James never uses the word 'plagiarize', he only refers to 'uncredited work'. He accepts no responsibility for any intent in his wrongdoing, he acts like it was all a big mistake. That's why this didn't qualify as an apology to me.
That really pissed me off. As if dropping the links of the authors in his description would allow him to then copy the scripts word for word.
He also says "I understand proper citations.. now. Now I do". Shut the hell up you knew what you were doing and intentionally tried to hide it.
I came here to say this. So glad other people caught on to that as well.
Also, I get that citation can be confusing or intimidating to people not in academia, but that's no excuse to not try. Especially after people were calling him out for not citing anything, you'd think that would've gotten him to learn how to do it properly. But instead he spun it around as people "harassing" him.
“I’m sorry I got caught”
His repeated use of "copy pasting" "adapting" and "referencing" on his dogshit video are very telling
He can't admit, for his own reputation, that he did something wrong, ever. He's like saying "oh wow, sorry you thought I was plagiarizing... It must've been super-fucking-hard for you."
I wanted to SCREAM at him "SAY THE WORD, JAMES, SAY THE FREAKING WORD"
James Somerton deactivating his patreon in a panic without a word making it harder for folks to remember/remove their membership to then silently reactivate it with NO COMMENT TO ANYONE is so scummy. That says everything to me right there.
I saw in the comments of someone's vid to block him on patreon, that may prevent patreon from charging you (I don't know for sure, this the 'may')
It is back up...
Literally five days before Christmas, during a time when people are busy packing, traveling, or dealing with their own crises. Just extremely scummy.
He did make a comment, he just buried it in a 35 minute long "apology" video where he fails to apologize for anything. Treating the announcement the same way his fellow youtube plagiarists treat citing sources, bury it somewhere out of the way where no one will expect it or go looking.
It's like deactivating your Instagram to prevent people from unfollowing you 😂
Being youtube villain of the year is a tough competition. Between Collen Ballinger, Iilumignautii, The Completionist and James Somerton. This apology was manipulative and false. Its full of inconsistencies and fallacies.
Woah, I completely missed drama about the Completionist. What happened?
You’re totally right, it has March Madness Bracket energy.
The “end your career and reputation” speedrun race this year has been incredible. Truly.
@@BandFairyhis charity was revealed to be fraudulent
There is actually enough to make them the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse but who would be what?
Colleen Ballinger must feel so snubbed right now. She had the "worst apology of 2023" award in her pocket before James swept in right before the end of the year.
Nah. James' was absolutely horrifying but Colleen's will never be eclipsed by anything. The narcissism, hubris, and deflection all rolled into an admittedly catchy tune, sung with unblinking, wide-eyed passive aggression is a thing of wonder.
@@kyletitterton Couldn't have put it better kitten. James pulled the usual fake apology, just like my sister did and she didn't have to spend an hour putting it together, just a few minutes on Whatsapp. That's just Kindergarden variety of 'woe my knee hurts now' and 'Cathrine did it too' and 'Michael made me do it' rolled into one.
Colleen fermented her anger, narcicissm and self-righteousness into a brackish soup of awful.
@@RiesenWuschel im sorry kitten?
@@undeniablySomeGuy well, I misread the name Kyletitterton at a surface glance to being some sort of 'Kittenton'... I realized my mistake shortly after but thought it hilarious so I put it in. ;)
@@kyletittertonThose eyes of Colleen... they still haunt me. I never understand how people can just *tell* who a monster is until I saw those eyes
A few things you didn't mention:
1) He completely throws Nick under the bus less than a minute after lamenting losing him as a friend- repeatedly saying he didn't write the misogyny or misinformation stuff.
2) He downplays the plagiarism by saying "I didn't think anyone thought I was doing journalism". What the heck does that mean? It's almost as though he's trying to tell us he didn't previously think theft of content was wrong.
3) He said he "loves research" and loves making videos even though I just don't think he has the first comprehension of the work it takes to legitimately put out content.
4) He then attributes the misogyny and other harmful content to being "in a rush to put out videos"- I mean, being in a rush doesn't cause you to put out stuff you don't really think does it? it just reduces your filter.
Using being in a rush as an excuse for misogyny is certainly not an excuse that I would've expected!
@@northstarjakobsJames: "Help I'm late for my flight and it's all these dumb white broads's fault!!!"
@@northstarjakobs It's like admitting that he's a misogynist and just didn't have the time to hide it.
@@ichbinben.It's like claiming you only said a slur purely because you were "having a heated gamer moment".
Pro Tip: If you say something in the heat of the moment or you were rushed, that just means you've been saying or thinking it in private enough for it to become a habit in the first place...
For point 2 I notice a lot of these people want it both ways. They want to make this a full time career but when they get in trouble try to hide behind "these are just silly internet videos!"
A friend sent me the link a couple hours ago, I opened it, heard him start the video saying he tried to kill himself, immediately clicked off; truthful or not thats just such a blatantly manipulative way to start a video where youre supposed to be apologizing for what you did? Fuck that
Now that's just sad, using the s77777de topic for your own gain?!
I wonder what the metrics on that vid were, considering he deleted it and it was 40 mins long. I imagine it would be a lot of people bailing out within only a few minutes, esp since there was no comment section to directly respond to the video in any way.
@conspiracypanda1200 I looked at it maybe 1-2 hours before he had deleted it and it only had about 10.5k views. A lot of people probably either watched someone else’s video about it or read a synopsis somewhere like I did. (It was on Hbomb’s subreddit if you want to read it too.)
I was just browsing the comments at the start of the video and saw he said he attempted su1c1de? and my jaw DROPPED.............. even if it was true he shouldnt have opened with that or maybe even include it in the video at all wtf dude just log off the internet and get a job in a gas station for real
@@conspiracypanda1200 what? when exactly did you see it?
Cause I was there within the first hour it dropped; the comment section was open and full of people eviscerating his 'apology'
He completely throws Nick under the bus in this apology video, too, which is just gross.
“I’m not throwing him under the bus, he was just a 50% owner”
@@plainjane-sk7rz"I'm not throwing him under the bus... I'm just saying that it really was my fault... That I never read what he wrote!!!" What an ass!
He was leading up to it in every livestream video- how "It's _impossible_ for him to plagiarize b/c Nick ALSO worked on them. And are you calling Nick LIAR?"
At least Nick jumped ship before this dreck came out.
hbomberguy fucking called it too in the original video that James would do this
@@phucdatbich7333 He did! And James uses basically the exact same approach with Nick as he did with Becky Albertalli! "I never said she was straight!" but just talked about her in a section about the straights. He never said Nick wrote the really shitty bits but he's talking about it in a section where he's saying "I didn't write that; btw Nick and I were 50-50 on this." It's just so shittily implied and it makes my skin crawl.
UPDATE, he's already deleted the apology when he saw we weren't having it. Way to break your pattern of behavior, James.
lmaoooo wow. also love the aroace flag ❤❤
It’s been reuploaded as well as many of his other videos
@@spockezriit reminds me of the beach
Maybe it was entirely plagiarized so he was doing the right thing by deleting it?
@@humanbeing2420LMAO
His apology has been deleted. But not before a large stadium worth of people saw it. Too late, the cat's out of the bag now. And any apology you try to do down the road is now tarnished by this one. I don't envy his position. I hope he gets whatever help he needs and finds another way to make it in this world. He really shouldn't try to have a career in this space anymore though. That ship has sailed. That's something you can attempt if you've made one big mistake. It's not something you can attempt if it's revealed your entire career was a lie.
He deleted it?! Did he realize it wasn't an apology?
@@tylerc5021 Fair chance the majority of people who saw it realised it wasn't an apology and that's why it's gone.
so it is! I could've sworn I'd watched a vid a few days ago but I see he uploaded another today and that is gone too. :o it was especially foolish to plagiarize people in the very same field and sphere of the same platform. i had only just discovered him, and just like that, he matters no more.
@@Quoxz when i'd checked, the majority of the comments were not having his bs. I saw only one person defending him in the comment section, and they had a hitler profile pic, so like. Yep.
@@tylerc5021 Based on a comment he left on RUclips some people "advised" him to not put out a video like this while he is in such an emotional state. Translated from "marketing expert": a bunch of people called him out on his obvious manipulation tactics and he panicked and deleted it again.
After all the times he deflected the plagiarism accusations with claims of death threats, openng rhe apology with claims of suicidality feels really fucking bad. I've been suicidal. I know what it's like, and I don’t doubt that the consequences of his actions could've gotten him there. But it feels like he's blaming those who exposed his actions for the consequences of his actions and it's an extraordinarily shitty defense mechanism. Frankly, this man doesn’t deserve the space he claimed in our community, and Harry is already doing what he should have done to compensate the people he stole from. Anything aside from refunding everyone who monetarily supported him and giving the rest of it to the plagiarized creators and then leaving this space forever is completely insufficient.
Exactly this, you get it. It was very irresponsible of him to structure it like that. It is a serious event in his life if true, but as Jessie outlined well, it absolutely recentres the discussion on his feelings over the dozens of artists and creators he stole from and buried the work of.
Discussion of his wellbeing is for figures in his personal life, not for when he's addressing the Internet on the topic of his victims. No one should want him to die obviously, but we also gain nothing but potential undeserved guilt and a plea for sympathy from him telling us this. It is arguably irrelevant info for him to include in his apology, and definitely not what he should've opened with.
Exactly why I clicked off as soon as he started crying like that. I'm a very forgiving person and it's completely fine to have emotions regardless of gender but he was clearly weaponising it to get a shred of support. My younger sister and I have both had periods of time when we were extremely suicidal (my sister's was much worse with multiple very nearly successful attempts) but even then the only people we ever told were those who absolutely had to know. It just reinforces the stigma that suicide is "selfish" which actively harms people in their most vulnerable state. I'm still very angry with him at this point in time so my feelings/ opinions may change in the future but he's destroyed any good will I had left for him. It's not the easiest to recognise that you've done a lot of wrong and need to atone for your actions, but it's the right thing to do and he could've maybe salvaged his career for some but that "apology" was the final nail in the coffin for him.
(Sorry for ranting, I'm just real mad right now 😂)
did anyone reupload his apology?
@ellaelise there's been a couple
@@Uhohlisa yeah you'll find it easily if you search now, I saw at least two reuploads
I'm still waiting for James Somerton's "Why I left the Left" video that will kick off his new career of being a right wing grifter.
At the very least, they seem less concerned (not at all concerned) at outright theft of others' labor.
He should start a podcast with George Santos.
I genuinely hope he never sees this comment, because it is scary how well this would work out for him.
Not to be an armchair psychologist, but James never seemed to be as strong of a leftist as people said and believed he was. He seems to promote progressive values less because society is unfair to his community and more because society is specifically unfair to him. He always seemed bitter that society denied him the rights and freedom he felt entitled to as a white man because he is gay, and he’s so misogynistic because he wants a group of people to abuse and look down on, like white women who call the police on people of color
@@scottmorrison3929seriously, could you imagine how much he would become a right wing darling and be trotted out like the useful idiot he is (knowing the entire time the average right winger hates the gays)
I can see he’s still using the exact same tactics that hbomb discussed at length… accusations of harassment, victimising himself, ‘apologising’ without actually apologising, promising future content to keep leading his audience on and almost immediately going back into cash-grab mode, NOT. ACKNOWLEDGING. THE FULL EXTENT OF HIS ACTIONS… And so on… I wasn’t even that angry about him before but it’s clear that he will continue to keep misdirecting instead of ever being honest. He had a chance to come clean but he’s acting exactly the same.
That video has already been deleted. But I want to say this: His videos that were (he asserts) not plagiarized, and his videos that he wants to make are still tainted by plagiarism. If he writes a perfect and honest apology, writes all his own scripts from scratch, cites every source professionally, and moves forward as the model of academic integrity, his platform, his reputation, and his finances are still built on a foundation of stolen work, stolen ideas, stolen passion, and stolen attention. He buried other, smaller creatives and used attention they should have gotten for himself. Whether he meant to or not, there is no way for him to continue to produce academic, journalistic, or artistic works for public consumption because his momentum is tainted by plagiarism. You cannot separate out the influence, energy, name recognition, and popularity that he earned for himself from all of those things that he stole. Going forward, anything else that he makes will be seen by an audience that is partly rightfully someone else's, because of his name recognition that is rightfully somebody else's, and simply by being a public figure with a platform that was grown on plagiarism, he will be benefitting from plagiarism all over again.
He needs to stop and find a new career because this one cannot be repaired.
It is theoretically possible to come back from this but it would take a lot of hard work, accepting wrongdoing, taking heaps of criticism, and TIME to earn sone good will to come back from this-all things I doubt someone like James could do.
I imagine it would take a metric tonne of accountability and reparations to have any shot, but I agree, it's likely his career here is dead in the water. Unless he can manage to scrape off the very few who subscibe to him for a primary source and don't check others. He certainly didn't list everyone and everything in his 'apology'.
I saw someone suggest he’ll pivot to being the Token Gay on some right wing channel who is willing to complain about cancel culture and the left being too sensitive. I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if his ‘marketing expert’ness would lead him down that path.
Considering how much he seems to hate doing his own writing, maybe he could help someone else do the video work/editing, if that really is his passion. Cuz script writing and research sure ain't it.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Jessie! Honey! You were put into physical harm by him. You got the cops called on you by James. You were hurt by him.
You have so much sympathy for him STILL. You are a strong brilliant woman.
wait what. the COPS?
yep. dudes a piece of shit - don't remember where he confirmed he did it, but he did@@lillianabright03
@@lillianabright03 The Ace Couple mentioned that in their video involving how Somerton victimized them, as well. I have NO (polite) words for anyone who pulls horrible stunts like that grifter.
And what happened? Cops show up at Jessie's home?
@@Daelyah Exactly!!! I listened to that podcast and nearly lost my shit.
I don't think this was just a grift to make money for James - that was just a nice perk. I think the part of being a video essayist that he loved was basking in the adoration that all those stolen voices bought him.
This. He loved the idea of appearing like this smarty pants boy who knew so much and was so respected. He loved the money and he loved the reputation just as much.
@@cidevant002 I stopped watching his videos a few months ago, because the delivery felt too slick and smug. Makes sense now...
Yes.
@@ChristianCatboy Yup I saw one video of his and only watched for like 5 minutes before I was completely over him. If you really know how to read people you can always tell pretty quickly when someone is completely full of themselves and it's just so grating and hard to listen to
@@Lin_Eileen I'm pretty naive in some ways, from having been a really repressed & sheltered Conservative Evangelical for 30 years, and autistic & trans the whole time without knowing it. So... kinda lame, but I used to get duped a lot by an "authoritative" demeanor - even an empty one - and it took me a lot longer than five minutes this time. It's an opportunity to and reflect and learn, I guess!
I learned from the ace couple that he apparently called the COPS on Jessie falsely accusing her of harassment and death threats?? If that's true the fact that she's giving him so much grace and compassion is so much more than he deserves. She's a goddamn saint.
😮
For f*cking real
@@capital_L283 OMG! I remember Jessie saying she'd been "doxed", but always assumed it was a nutty anti-woker. That's way sad.
are you FREAKING KIDDING ME? Falsely calling the cops on a TRANS PERSON IN THE US? Oh man the last flying fck I had for James' wellbeing just left out the window.
And the punchline is ... James Somerton critiqued the police extensively and said they treat and have treated historically LGBT with brutality and cruelty. But he had no problems weaponizing them for his own gain. The damn hypocrisy.
I strongly recommend people familiarize themselves with the term “DARVO” (coined by psychologist Jennifer Freyd) - the Wikipedia article is a good summary. The term describes a powerful person’s attempt to “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender”, and it sounds like Somerton’s “apology” is a textbook example.
I'm glad you mentioned this, he seems to DARVO often.
I was trying to remember exactly how the acronym went. Thank you! I think the yuletide elves stole my brain.
You can make a little game of it - add a point under each initial every time he does one - you'll get quite a few by the end (by the end of most youtube drama apologies really)
THANK You !
Raised with DARVO from birth, which sucks, but the upside is that I’m fcking goated at spotting it and dissecting it now.
Laughing in the face of DARVO because it’s so clockable and ur not afraid of them anymore is also fantastic btw
Get a little safe bubble of peers and laugh at your abuser for days folks
The fact that one of the biggest complaints against James is the way he constantly centers himself and people like him in his conversations, to the exclusion of others, and he proceeded to center his feelings immediately in his 'apology video' really just proves everyone right.
My favorite part was when he talked about things that "ended up in the videos". It's such a way of putting it that completely separates him from the action, as if the words just sneaked in without him noticing or participating in any way
Yes, it's the use of the passive voice, which is textbook for when you don't want to actually take accountability for any actions
Don't you know? Plagiarism is like a virus that sneaks into your video timeline when you're not looking! /s
Like Philip's "I take full responsibility for what happened with the dead cells review"... don't even let your language touch the actions you took.
funniest thing of all was that he claimed he wasn't throwing Nick under the bus. Well, James, if it wasn't you, and it wasn't Nick, who was it?? 🤔
I remember watching the Hbomberguy video and a reoccurring feeling in my gut was just "I'm really glad I'm not James Somerton right now." Even though he'd taken so much from other people and was happy to let it be misunderstood as all his own work, there was still that sizeable ball of pity I held for him sitting in the pit of my stomach as the video kept going on on. I can't imagine how soul-crushing it must have felt to watch that video and realize just how thoroughly Hbomberguy made his arguments and dismantled Somerton's past defenses. But the simple fact of the matter is that he had a career based on taking other people's works and claiming them as his own and this has made all of the good-faith and good-will towards him sour. Somerton is going to have to accept that people are mad at him, distrustful of him, and will be scrutinizing all of his past and future statements from now on; and it is simply because of his own actions. He probably saw himself as being a microphone for queer analysis, but from how many people he quoted verbatim without credit, an argument could be made that he was really a figure of queer erasure this whole time. How many different writers, editors, and creatives did he take words and arguments from wholesale and regurgitate them under the "James Somerton" brand? Of the tapestry that is the history of queer analysis and critique, Somerton was fine with his name replacing the actual people who wrote his words.
This isn't even speaking of the misinformation or misogyny he is rightly under scrutiny for now. I don't how honest Somerton is being in his apology, from what I know about him now I know he isn't an honest person. But if he is genuinely struggling to process his emotions I would tell him to strongly consider finding a therapist who can help him process this, I know he can afford it. This isn't a situation you can simply fix. He is going to have to take responsibility for what he's done and how he reacts from this, because right now he is trying to make other people take responsibility for his mental health when they react accordingly. He tied his financial future and career to what he posts on RUclips and he frankly should have known this was irresponsible because he's had individuals notice and call him out for his plagiarism before. But he kept going. This was always going to happen eventually. It's not Hbomberguy or anyone else's responsibility over how he reacts when the grift is over.
This 💯. Also he is in Canada where free healthcare and mental healthcare is available to him. The people he falsely accused and attacked may not have those same support systems. He stole from creators that are no longer with us and are unable to receive the credit they deserve.
I absolutely believe it fucked him up that bad mentally. AS I understand it, public shame is psychologically devastating because it challenges the identity claims we make about ourselves, AND it challenges our right to even *make* identity claims about ourselves - in other words, to declare who we are and what we're about. Anyhow, being stripped of that by public shame uniquely fucks a person up. Of course that doesn't mean people shouldn't be exposed for their damaging actions. Anyhow that's why I try to keep my howls of spiteful internet glee to a minimum. It's too tempting, but it is damaging too.
It was kind of incredible that the one time he said he DIDN'T write something (all the acephobia, women hating shit) was the one time he actually DID write something. Just incredible.
You know what sort of bugs me? The dude is from a part of Canada that has a noticably strong Queer Community. He would've been able to find easy ish community support, and instead, he was in it for himself, like a proper business Major.
Truth! Even in Eastern Kentucky, I know of other queer people
Going by what he has to say about the AIDs crisis, how he treated queer RUclipsrs, I can only imagine he didn’t have enough respect for that community to… engage? Be part of it? Open up?
@@fluffywolfo3663 , in retrospect, he has very strong Only Gay in the Village vibes.
in the comments of the Plag video, other people claiming to be business/marketing majors were saying this mindset and approach to business *("F*CK YOU GOT MINE")* is encouraged.
I'm starting to believe it's true.
Gay Capitalism won’t save us. 🙃
My grandfather used to tell me:
"We all make mistakes, its a part of life and growing. You'll know youre a grown man when you start taking responsibility for your own actions...
And you'll know you're a good man when you start taking responsibility for your emotions. Its okay to feel however you need to feel but its never okay for you to blame others for your feelings."
Anytime someone blames others for their mistakes or feelings i think of that. Especially when it involves self harm.
You do speak truth ngl
James Somerton is an irresponsible child by that logic, and let me just say, that sounds perfectly right.
You are so empathetic toward someone who has not shown you the same level of care. You actually put in the work and you have the career James Somerton wishes he could have because of that work. This is why you have our respect.
He personally went after Jessie during that whole ‘I can’t get into Nebula because they hate cis gay men!’ debacle and she was incredibly kind and tried to be understanding at that time as well.
I second this. Jessie still extends him empathy when he never gave any to her or other creators.
@@gateauxq4604wow.. theres tons of cis straight white males on nebula tho too jeezzz
I really do admire her for that... it's incredibly easy to just write James off as a monster for what he's done because it really is bad and he's an adult but really he is not yet, just a misguided child stuck in a man's body and he needs to learn how to move on... but I'm not sure if he will ever learn. It's a difficult situation and I hope he can get the help he needs to get through it safely and with some dignity in tact but I'm just not sure he can... sorry for the wishy washy but I'm just not sure because I've seen some serious solipsism in my days and this takes me back to my worst times in life seeing all this. I just don't want anything to do with this guy I don't wanna hear about him anymore but I admire people like Jessie so much for being able to put up with it and listen to him so deeply and analyze what he's doing, for me it's just tiring and makes me wanna kms so I'm taking a step back from it all
Yea, the kicker for me was that he didn’t respond directly to a single victim. It was all dodgy, and sidestepping the point and then recentered on himself. The endpoint of the video was to move the narrative back to the plans he has to comeback from this… lots of “sorrys” but no apology found
I’m not a lawyer, by any stretch of the imagination, but I think If he does that it could bite him in the ass in case they decide to sue him.
Cheers.
Edit: typo and punctuation
I’m not justifying him, BTW. Just saying it could be worse than it looks.
Edit: started a sentence and changed it in the middle of writing it. LOL. 😂
tbf, it'd be hard for him to respond to a single victim given the vast amount of plagiarism he's done. I wouldn't be surprised if James doens't even remember who he plagiarized from. He clearly doesn't respect the original authors enough to share them with his audience, so why would he bother remembering who they are?
I loved James Somerton. He was ones of my favorite video essayists. He was one of the only two creators I supported on Patreon. I felt like my trust was betrayed by him and he didn’t even steal from me. I can’t imagine how the people he plagiarized from feel.
The money he took from his supporters might not legally be theft , but morally it was absolutely theft by deception. He misrepresented himself to us, he lied and was given money based on his deception. He's a fraud and a cheat and he stole your money, and our time, and the respect and resources that rightfully belong to the creators he ripped off.
So, yeah, I would say he did steal from you.
you funded the active destruction of other people's work. congratulations.
@@parabolicpanorama Don’t blame viewers. They were the ones ripped off and most people likely didn’t know all this before the video. Even Hbomberguy said that his viewers/supporters aren’t to blame here.
@@gemstone108 they watched that cringe-ass shit (and hbomb too for that matter) so I say they deserve it
@ExValeFor good thing nobody asked a Dota player for their ethical opinion
He uses absolute textbook manipulative rhetoric and language its just... like, the audacity. Just liar/abuser-speak 101, its shameless.
Real DARVO energy
I feel for Somerton if he was pushed to the point of self harm. But the truth is that no, HBomberGuy and Todd in the Shadows and those that pointed out his actions are not responsible for this. James Somerton is responsible for that. Pointing out the problems with his videos is simply that. Somerton does not get to point a finger at those that exposed his actions.
Yes. And this exact idea is taken directly from this here video!
James should just do us the favor already, right?
@@nicmanza4657 I am basically agreeing with the video.
@@nicmanza4657 I will mention, though - I wonder if he allowed himself to do this based on the popular notion of youtube videos. I mean, look at the words we use to describe the work of youtubers - "Content". It makes it seem like we are devaluing the work put into them and discussing soap or some other product. When we all use terminology that devalues the work put into these things then people like Somerton are allowed to delude themselves into thinking it's okay to steal it... Just a passing thought.
@@TimothyCollins Genuinly interesting thought, especially becaus it's your own and it adds to the content, cheers!
the part where he goes "nick, if you're watching this, im sorry and i miss you" made me pause the video to laugh for like 5 minutes like what kind of romcom 2nd act betrayal shit are they on
I firmly believe there was something going on behind the scenes there... I'd bet my last dollar that james was (and still is) romantically pining for nick, who likely isn't interested
Like what is this shameful shit? Either this is entirely fabricated publicity shit (one way or another) or Nick totally lost his number and blocked him everywhere and youtube is the only way that Somerton can hope to contact Nick. Frankly, I don't know which is more embarrassing
Hbomberguy very carefully carved out an out for Nick (deserved or not), so, even if Nick was in on the plagiarism, it would be career suicide to forgive Sommerton at this point. But...like...Nick had to have known, right? They were roommates. He had to have seen Tinker Bells and Evil Queens around the apartment. How fundamentally incurious are we willing to believe he is, that he never once saw a pile of other people's writing and noticed the similarities in the videos? Isn't that as damning?
@@meghanhenderson6682 or he just got ebooks…?
@@Romanticoutlaw Nick was self proclaimed Ace. James lost a friend and partner. I find it difficult to believe Nick didnt know about the plagiarism as widespread as it was.
JS reminds me of a boyfriend I had who after an argument would do something mildly self-destructive like get really drunk, then call me up and say "Look what you made me do" which was exactly JS's tactic.
What HBomberguy did was perfectly legitimate professional criticism. Somerton's arrogance and insistence on being the primary queer voice on YT caught up with him after his refusal to address previous concerns raised about his professional ethics, responding purely with accusations of homophobia 🙄
Because I had an ex-husband who pulled the same manipulative tactics, I saw right through Somerton's "apology." I cancelled my Patreon to him early this month. $3 down the drain.
I’ve got experience on both sides of that (I was a shitty teenager who tried to guilt trip, then I had someone pull this on me literally within months) - this is EXACTLY the energy it has.
My ex Was like that, too.
He was drinking and Smoking "broccoli", using a E scooter, got caught by the police and got his license removed.
That was my fault. 🙄
Can't wait to see hbomberguy in season 5 of True Detective
I’m pretty sure he, in the video, predicts that defense, and mockingly brings up the fact that he himself is bi
Guess Jimmy was too busy stealing to listen to the words in the video that fucking atomized his career and total public reputation
It's actually shocking to me that he didn't mention the Todd In The Shadows video. Because, to me, honestly it was the worst one out of the two of them.
Not only did he get a lot of things wrong, in extremely hurtful ways, but there was also this conspiracy doomer-ish tint to it which is a horrible thing to put out to his fans.
It's so obvious that he is counting on Todd having a smaller following, and thus, he feels like he can get away with not acknowledging it.
I feel the same because Todd’s video shows that when he adds original content it’s just wrong (and often misogynistic).
My personal guess is there's less overlap between James' and Todd's audience than there is for James a Hbomb that Todd's video doesn't come up as much
i think he was insinuating that he lied on james. bc james said something to the effect of "ppl are now piling on and making up things, but not hbomberguy" can't remember what he said verbatim but that stuck out to me.
Just like his view on citing sources, well known sources he cites, if he thinks he can get away with not acknowledging it he doesn’t
I saw Todd’s video first, fist seeing James as a liar, and I see such a wider scope to it then I realized through HBG’s video!
I lost a friend because of James Somerton years ago.
I don't feel sympathy because I was harassed, stalked, and sent ugly, hateful messages because I tried to point out the videos were flawed, woefully watered down, and needed extra work put into them. Said "friend" turned into a person hellbent on ruining my life.
At that time, I didn't know who James Somerton was. I just noticed the videos were lackluster and needed some extra work and some information felt like it was someone trying to speak for the entire LGBTQ+ community, which was pretty offensive. We're not a monolith and our experiences are very diverse. It's offensive to silence the rest of us.
That "friend" still sends me hate messages now and then. That "friend" was manipulated and charmed by the idea of someone presenting themselves as a queer figurehead.
No more figureheads. It just hurts people. This isn't a monarchy.
with what's come to light, I hope your ex-friend at least feels a little foolish, and that you haven't been subjected to how they feel one way or the other
Send them hbomb's video and then block them lmao
"No more figureheads. It just hurts people. This isn't a monarchy."
Already one of the best sentences I read in 2024. Should be shouted from every rooftop. Thank you so much for this!
Apologies should be reserved for mistakes you feel remorse for - not as a defence against being a shitty person when you get caught.
As a heterosexual, cisgender man, I just want to say that I hadn’t heard of James Somerton until the Todd in The Shadows video, so I really appreciate all the discourse around this. Learning a lot. Thank you!
The fact is Somerton is banking that the majority of his views comes from people that don't follow a larger community of creators. He's playing for the ignorant and his apology video isn't for us. It's for people that don't know better and don't know how much he was exposed.
that's why he says
"(sending the revenue) to the people who were wronged"
instead of
"(sending the revenue) to the people *I* wronged"
Considering how badly he checked up, including erasing his whole channel, any of those out of touch fans will be asking "what happened to James?" And go googling.
That backfired for illuminaughtii. The larger community just didn't let it go. But his fraud is much worse than hers because he poses as an intellectual. He wants people to think he said those things and the gaslightimg won't stop. Even the attempted suicide is Narcissism 101.
Ugh, I applaud you for making it through that whole video. I bailed when he started begging for a second chance. It was exactly what I expected from him, I unsubbed from him months ago. Not because I knew about the plagiarism but because I couldn't stand his smug demeanor.
I remember finding his videos a bit boring, because they were retreading topics I already heard other RUclipsrs cover (I guess that feeling was justified lol) but I subbed anyway to "support a queer creator" 😅
I remember feeling almost guilty for being unable to make it through any of his videos. His content looked interesting, but he just rubbed me the wrong way.
I guess I feel vindicated, now?
@@Zosio I hope so because I am a straight dude who's subbed to lots of lgbtq+ creators. Some of them make videos on subjects I like such as video games, tech and movies but I'm also subbed to ones primarily covering gay or trans issues I feel deserve my attention and time to educate myself on their struggles and accomplishments. James is the one I couldn't handle.
I was subscribed but made some distance when the drama patterns were becoming apparent.
it's wild how these "apologies" somehow always end up with "please let me avoid the consequences of my actions". Like, the goal of an apology isn't so things can return to the status quo and you can go back to making money and getting a platform.
I regularly see better acting watching pro wrestling than what James was doing in that apology video
Hey now, wrestlers respect their audience!
Pro Wrestlers are good actors actually. They're good performers.
based pfp
To be honest. Pro wrestlers are pretty good actors. Just look at John Cena & Dave Bautista.. they are far better actors than guys like vin Diesel or Jason Statham or Momoa.
I'll put more respect on Commander James Stephanie Sterling than on James Somerton any day of the week
I literally write other people's videos because I enjoy writing and research and have a horror of being on camera. There are plenty of people out there like me. If I knew someone with a good on-camera presence and an interest, I'd start a channel with them in a heartbeat. Somerton didn’t have to do it this way.
Totally; Simon Whistler’s mini-empire is a testament to this type of setup 😄 Simon is really engaging though; I don’t think I ever saw a full James Somerton video because I didn’t like his style of delivery.
@@jaymogrified Good point, Simon is a good example of what JS could have done, allow queer voices to be heard if they didn't like the camera. But no, he had to put himself front and center for it all.
@@jaymogrified well, his "style of delivery" wasn't even a style, since it was mismatched with the stolen words he was reading. There was someone that always felt off to me about his videos, and I think it's picking up on how he doesn't actually have a "voice".
The fact that he reactivates the patreon and claims the Telos money was going to go to artists once they got some movies off the ground only tells me that he STILL HAS OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.
James did not learn anything and is frankly not ready to atone. His only option now is to never work on RUclips again
Hope you have safe travels Jessie!
I am 80% sure the word plagiarism is (still) blocked in the comment section. What a clown that dude is!
He took down all videos, including the apology, lol.
@@Macaulyn_97 I honestly hope someone archives it and reuploads it.
It’s probable that several people have but in the meantime there are at least a few reacts to it.
You can find re-uploads easily if you just search James Somerton Apology
@@Homodemon Someone did lol, they quick out here
Bottom line on James' mental state: if this situation has truly put him in a dark place, returning to his channel, the ultimate source of this strife, is completely counterintuitive. There is no world where a sensible psychiatrist would advise you to go back to where or what put you there in the first place. The best thing for both him and those he's wronged (financial debts aside) is for him to get off social media
A friend just introduced me to the expression "may they be as happy as they are far away" and I can think of few people who merit receiving that expression more than James.
I am a bit haunted by being almost convinced to give re: last year's tearful "this may be the end of my channel" plea video, but couldn't afford to without removing money from the actual friends whom I've supported on patreon. Thankfully, I didn't, but the shame of almost falling for his lies hurts, and I can only imagine how much it stings for those who did give.
While I don't believe for a second that Nick is innocent here or that he could not know about the plagiarism at the very least, the way James blamed him for apparently writing something I know for a fact James himself said in a podcast style, conversational, unscripted video is... chef's kiss, honestly. Beautiful. Love it. 10/10.
Truly, what a guy. Upstanding friend right there, on top of everything else.
I can kind of believe Nick didn't know about the plagiarism, seeing how Hbomberguy's video showed instances of Nick posting excerpts from upcoming video scripts that turned out to be plagiarized and saying, "Look what James wrote! He wrote this bit!" It's just so easy to get caught, it's weird that he would be so open and public about that.
@@eyesofthecervino3366 The same way any plagiarist openly and publicly says "look at what I wrote!" and expects not to get caught, I guess. I really don't understand how saying that proves anything.
I don't see how he could live and work with James and know absolutely nothing about his method. Even if he somehow didn't, the accusations of plagiarism aren't new, there is no way he never googled a line of one of the videos that people had pointed at, just out of curiosity or even to have solid arguments to defend James. I just don't believe it.
Also... some of the videos were so heavily plagiarized one has to wonder, if Nick, the cowriter, wasn't participating in that, what the hell was he even writing? The three lines where the misogyny was inserted? Idk
None of this is proof against him either, just my thoughts.
@@apffh
Fair. I guess I'm content to attribute it to laziness -- Nick doesn't seem to have had a fleck of intellectual curiosity to him. And while the plagiarism was pretty blatant, posting "This is the thing James wrote!" really hurts the plausible deniability narrative of claiming you just forgot to properly cite sources, which seems to be the defense James was angling for.
I hate when people try to erase and pretend, we don't exist, I am asexual and my brother is aromatic we are both out , we breathe the same air as everyone else, we bleed red like everyone else, we are real people too, so why can't we get along as normal people?
I don’t know, but I wish people would stop dehumanizing us.
Erasure isn't a form of privilege, it's a different shape of disrespect.
@@pinkcupcake4717 I don’t think they’re talking about privilege. It’s not just a sign of disrespect, it’s a sign of pure contempt, as if we were some sort of slime mold. We are humans, too. I think that’s what they were saying, and I agree. There’s too much of that in the world.
I think some people are so deeply repressed and disgusted by their own urges and weird secrets, that they project the grossness onto folks who don't struggle with the same. Obviously, not everyone. There are people who understand ace folks exist and still hate that reality. But it seems there is also a disbelief that others do not wrestle with creepy kinks, or that a gay man could mange to reproduce, or that bi people must only "be" whatever sexuality that is represented by whatever partner they currently have. It's really sad and creepy :C
How do you deal with people saying “it’s just a phase”. Especially if it’s from friends or family. I get so annoyed by it
So, so many excuses... And he wouldn't have "apologized" if he didn't get painted into a corner. He had many chances to come clean.
And on top of it all, he's worried about saving his youtube career? He needs to stop.
He should sell his equipment, pay back the Telos backers, and do something else with his life.
Real estate?
Or scam old ladies on the phone
He should join a monastery and hand copy old bibles by hand while sitting in poor lighting.
Seems like his kinda gig.
I'm pretty sure he could find a good career in the corp world doing marketing. I imagine he'd be job hopping to cover up the back stabbings.
OMG Jessie I wish you didn't take so many bullets for the rest of us, but unfortunately I'm going to be a coward and watch his "apology" by proxy via your channel. But, as I am a proper capitalist, at least the payment for my eyeballs goes to you and not him...
Matriarchetype is a trans streamer and she filmed a reaction, if you want to hear his actual words. I couldn't keep listening to James' voice because he's so manipulative.
You're not a coward, he doesn't deserve the views
How does one watch a video of one creator via proxy through another creator?
thank you for writing the exact comment I wanted to leave and saving me the energy 😂😅
It has been removed
"I didn't think we were doing journalism". This sticks out to me - putting aside the dishonesty, one of the reasons Somerton stole so much is that despite presenting himself as an intellectual, he considers video essay work to be unserious, like tiktok skits or RUclips poops. I believe he is sincere in this - which is bananas considering the income he was making, but some people just aren't great at thought.
I totally feel your pain when you talk about James being hurt and that you don't want that. But... there is a huge difference between the harassment that you experienced by JK and her fans, and what James experiences. You did nothing wrong, you were attacked for simply existing. He knew what he was doing and I can't understand how he couldn't be prepared for it to come out one day. That doesn't make it any less hard, but there is a difference in "victimhood". (I hate that word, but right now I can't think of a different one.)
its about the chain of cause and effect and then whether the causal factors are just causes or not.
Justice and Consequentialism.
Apologises about how long it has taken to post the video but decided that waiting perhaps another hour or two to record it (you know when the non verbal cues films use to provide emotional based confirmatory and key to the medium visual back up for the portrayed narrative to flesh it out wouldn't be there)
Knowledge: He knew what he was doing
it s factually (more important in this context also provably) false for him to claim ignorance about the harms done - and lets please be mindful of the double whammy here.
Some of the still very much alive victims of his plagiarism brought the harm against them to his attention, in my view that paved the road to later malfeasance.
What about the harm which doesn't allow for the range of cultivated misinterpretation or heck even unreasonable levels of doubt via individual modular interpretation - the financial defrauding of a bunch of people via an investment scam. in a film production company that has made zero films, where he just lied.
You are telling me he has burned through at a conservative estimate 140,000 USD in a year? Why is that conservative? That's less than his patreon + the 64k raised for the production company raked in last year based on if everyone was a lower tier subscriber and takes into account lowest subscriber figures
graphtreon.com/creator/jamessomerton
his paid subscriber count went up a further 1000 from April this year so he has been pulling in more than the 8k per calendar month he made in 2022 when he had a third fewer paid subscribers. He is moving in with his parents after almost 9 months of 10k pcm - all who financed him have been defrauded and victimized and also made unknowingly and unwittingly an accomplice in the marginalisation and harm done to the people who actually did the work he passed of as his.
Honestly I'm sort of surprised how badly he did this apology video. He had so many years of other creators' apology videos to directly steal the good parts from? Bro you've been training for this.
Or maybe that's where he got the manipulation inspo from...
He didn't have a ukulele to use though
Thank you for this service cuz I sure AF didn’t want to click that video,not even to dunk on it
I wanted to see what the comments were but this showed up first in my search so I decided to just go with it
@@SorowFame apparently, the response must've been REEEEEEALLY back bc he dirty deleted after 8 hours loool
Luckily there are reuploads that we can watch guilt free
i just got out of the hospital 2 days ago after an attempt. the way james talked about his attempt with such clear intent to manipulate was awful. but at the same time i empathize so heavily with his situation as another recent inpatient. i am glad he deleted the video, for his sake and the sake of his victims.
James basically thanked Hbomberguy for cleaning up his mess, but didn’t offer to lift a finger to help.
He did (or at least thought he did), but he's still so delusional that his offer was just a massive poorly thought-out nothing that would never work the way he seems to think it'll work.
@@StargazerSkyscraper he said he reached out to hbomb & his editor to help with the funds, but like, hbomb's editor has come out and said this hasn't happened at all.
@@notshardain Ghosting people is a common habit of his, it seems.
@@notshardainof course he lied about that as well...
lol, "my friend is asexual". Always people being like, "I'm not racist/queerphobic, I have friends in the minority," while actually being phobic (known many cases). Also, as an asexual, I have met acephobic asexual people online and irl. Your labels never make you immune of being hateful and/or ignorant about others, regardless of similarities.
The thing that pisses me off about the "apology" is that James instantly made it all about himself. Instead of mentioning anyone he'd wronged, he lumped them all into some amorphous group and almost exclusively talked about himself and how this all affected him.
honestly thanks so much for saying the words "attempt suicide" instead of "unalive yourself" or whatever
the only time saying unalive doesnt make me cringe was once in an online class someones little sister sat in on our history class and the teacher said unaliving instead of murder
this is barely relevant i just wanted to tell someone about it
People say that to avoid being flagged and having the video demonetised.
I'm not sure Jessie might want to monetize this one, so is okay to be as frank as possible and say things as they are.
James Somerton is the kind of guy to make suicidal threats to shut people up, and will never admit he's wrong. There's no turn around it.
It's not just about monetization though.
"Problem words" can also get a video supressed.
It's a way to avoid having a video blacklisted. Monetisation is one part, but if a video gets demonetised for things like discussing "sensitive" topics, such as gay people existing, it also gets hidden from the wider youtube audience.
I don't believe him. As far as I'm concerned he owes me $120us for two year subscription to his patreon. What I heard was him begging Nick to come back. His tears wasn't for the apology but for what he's lost.
only six minutes into this but i’m just really struck by what a kind, empathetic, thoughtful person you are, for how much understanding you’re giving this asshole (and how much empathy you consistently show in all your videos). being one of the people harmed by him he seriously does not deserve your kindness, but the fact that you are able to give him the benefit of the doubt re: his mental health while also rightfully and firmly criticizing his terrible actions & insincere “apology”, shows immense character on your part. your kind, smart approach to speaking on controversies like this one is truly inspiring and our community is so lucky to have you ❤
Something I also noticed in the 'apology' is that he said part of the problem was that they were making videos they didn't want to make and rushing videos out, which felt like a slap in the face of those who supported him when there were many times that viewers told them not to feel any pressure to release to schedules or cover topics they didn't want to. James set his own Patreon goals, including promising to make videos on specific topics, James wasn't working for a boss, it really felt like he was trying to push some of the blame on the audience who had supported him.
Honestly this whole situation is devestating, but it has made me as an individual realise that I need to take responsibility for ensuring the content I consume and the people I support, are putting out work that deserves that support.
James: I totally made some original videos!
Us: ok, which ones?
James: Uhh, they go to another school.
thank you for taking the time to make this and unpack how his apology was garbage
Oh good idea--watching a suspect apology video with friends! It's right and sensible self-protection to avoid tackling potential gaslighting alone!
My post is what mental gymnastics does to a brain. Spread it out between brains! Smart!
(I feel like that sounds rude? I hope not. I meant it to be true but silly, & not rude to y'all!)
@@katielangsner495omg yes! What you said! 😅
Drink your water, take your meds! (I'm dehydrated! Lol!)
The thing that got me is that he is taking NO responsibility for his actions and thinks he wants to come back. He talks about it like so cavalierly and refuses to accept that his past work and potential new work are unwanted and hurt people. It was so frustrating watching the video. The whole video is him trying to minimize the issues he created. Imo he needs to go away from the internet and find a way to pay the ppl he stole from without un privating the old. I agree with you on all this. I just can’t say how frustrated this has been to watch
The whole thing felt like he needed more time away. It’s clearly too fresh to him.
The whole video read like the kind of apology me and my sisters would give each other immediately after getting in fights as kids. We didn’t mean them, we said what we thought would get us out of trouble, we grasped at every small thing around the matter except the bad thing we did.
I reeks of someone who hasn’t allowed themselves enough time to think over the scale of what they did.
None of the appeals Sommerton thought up would work, none could match the harm done. I don’t think bringing the videos back and using whatever imprecise methodology to give the money back to the creators does the trick when the „glory“, the Audience and attention would remain on Sommerton. He kept bringing up him putting names places, as if that’s the part that mattered, not the copy pasting. It’s like he doesn’t get it.
He brings up he wants to be a „shining example“ of how not to plagiarize, but when his entire catalogue is a sloppy collage of others peoples‘ thoughts, how on earth does he expect his audience knows he can pick up a pen himself. It’s like somehow Sommerton still thinks of himself as a creative despite never creating anything. He has nothing to drive a new audience because his portfolio can be thrown out entirely.
I want to be as sensitive as I can to his situation. I do believe him about the attempt as it would cruel not to. I liked how you pointed out this not being good for him because it’s really not. I’ve already seen sickening stuff of people claiming he’s faking or farming sympathy. I often worry we are nearing a point in the internet where therapy speak and true crime talk causes people to over analyze every online interaction and invent bad intentions behind every gesture. Hell my sister from across the room said „I think he’s a narcissist.“ I don’t think that’s helpful. I don’t think that’s productive. It’s why I feels so gross about how quickly and immediately discourse about that section turned into „he’s manipulating“ His tragic act, was then turned into just another bad thing James did. Rather than the serious event it was.
Look, threatening suicide was one of the textbook moves my abuser used to keep me close to her. And to see people compare that to Sommerton talking about his at a admittedly wholly inappropriate (not to be done during apology) time is a little off putting. I believe in severity in scale, I don’t think he’s satan for it, but I can’t speak for the rest of the internet. They’ll take it and run, and have been. Within days he’ll get the Ballinger treatment, and it’ll get brought up and disected over and over again. Which would be nightmarish.
Frankly I’m just facinated by the video because it says so little. He’s doesn’t properly apologize, dedicates himself to the wrong choices, thanks Bombe for creating a fund which wouldn’t have existed if he didn’t rip off people’s work, somehow believes his skills in Ctl c translates into video scripting. Again spoke like a guy who it hasn’t fully sunk in for. It’s over, James. There’s no going back, there’s no turn the videos back on and give the money back, there’s no reasons to turn patreon back on, no let me make totally new videos, there’s no giving the crowdfunding money to „queer artists“ to make movies because they aren’t getting made. It’s over.
It could be a lack of appreciation for the art of criticism or analysis, or a lack of appreciation of said criticisms as works which leads to this level of delusion in his position. I am not convinced one can simply will out a video essay, they have to have thoughts to put in them. It’s as if he got out of this situation, looked at the works he ripped off and thought „I can do that“
He seems to think he, in a matter of months, can turn things around and write essays of the quality he stole because he does not appreciate the skill, the time, the intellect, required to make them. And because all that, he cannot see it’s over.
The queer authors he plagiarized deserve recognition beyond their connection to the Sommerton drama, and that’s the sucky thing about this.
Not to mention how little he went over the misogyny, which was the whole reason I couldn’t get into his content in the first place. Shit was palpable.
I like “skills in ctrl c” 😂
This is why people who copypasta variations of "didn't read 🗿" are losers. Long, thoughtful comments like this are filled with gold.
It's not good for his mental health to go back to video essays. Whatever he puts out will inevitably be shit and ripped to shreds.
James is severely under-estimating the years of practice, dedication and trial and error to craft an engaging essay.
You hit the nail right on the head.
As for the narcissism thing, I think that *could* be productive, but only if it comes from a place of understanding the mindset of someone with that personality disorder. He may be fully incapable of honest introspection on his own and is likely in a great deal of very real pain about all this. What he needs is a community who can help him figure this stuff out, without enabling more abusive behavior. A therapist who knows how to help abusers recover.
And it's such a shame that he's alienated basically the entire queer youtube community, because we could've maybe helped him get there. Here's hoping he has irl people instead, who he can trust to support him. Otherwise I forsee a descent into fascist ideology in his future, because he's easy prey to that crowd right now. I hope it doesn't go that way.
@16:00
When she mentions that Sumorton said "I'm sorry to the ace people whi felt delegitimized by my words" that... ooh that.
I grew up with an incredibly narcissistic and manipulative parent. And whenever she "apologized" for things, she never said, "I'm sorry I did this to you" or "I'm sorry my actions had these consequences". She ALWAYS said, "I'm sorry you felt that way." Taking no blame and turning the blame onto me (and my siblings) for reacting to her in a way that she didn't like.
So Sumorton doing that is just... *internal screaming*
I couldn't get past 1:13 of the "I'm sorry" video. It was so disgusting. And I'm not one of the people that had works or money stolen from. I can't even imagine how disgusted those that were felt after that first bit.
[Update: James has already taken down the apology. Guess he didn't like the overwhelmingly negative response.]
I was a huge fan, Patron, and Telos donor. I'm going to triple check that I'm not giving him money but I'm also going to contact Patreon and ask that they drop him. He has engaged at minimum in unethical behaviour, potentially fraudulent, and maybe even against Patreon TOS. Anyone who uses Patreon should also contact them. Somerton should _NOT_ be allowed to continue grifting money.
I appreciate your watching and posts about it. I read what you wrote, got the gist, and didn't have to sit through it myself, nor give James a view.
Oh dear, Jessie. It is awful that someone ruins things for the rest of the group. The timing could not be worse.
I'm glad you shared your frustration. I'm with you in your sympathy/empathy in the depressive feelings that could lead one to self-harm. I really hope James has learned from all of this, even if his "apology" sounded like an advertisement for himself.
Lots of love to you, and the whole community. I'm here for you.
Have a great holiday with your family! ❤
I watched James' video go up, down, and the community post happen in real time and I want to share as much of the story as possible - because there are certain things that can't be archived/re-uploaded (this is cross-posted yet written before I watched this video. Jessie, we're echoing each other a bit here and I consider that an honor):
He's already taken it down replacing it with a community post (comments off) pre-accusing people of uploading it to mock his mental health (no James, the several k comments all acknowledged that's *serious* and even *empathized* but it's manipulative to bring up at the top of an apology). Piles more guilt by adding how recently he made it after release from a crisis center so he's going to 'try again' after giving himself more time.
P.S James won't remember me, but I have over 20+ years in Psych (with a subspecialty in Human Sexuality and Gender Studies) however, I remember him trying to degrade me in a chat until I mentioned this, he tried to counter it, - and a few people who'd seen me do support and interventions on other creators comment sections verified it - I *never* downplay the suffering of others.
I am, however, very displeased by the narrative being attempted here. (I read swaths of comments and replies). No one was cruel.
[Edit for further archiving: I literally read hundreds of comments and sub comments and there were even people telling others to check their language to ensure it was clear that things like "this is a bad idea, you shouldn't be here" ect was clear to mean *RUclips* not misread as "alive on the planet"]
There were actually many people sharing their own struggles with SH ect, but (correctly) pointing out that you do NOT start an apology by stating how severely *you* are affected.
I'm not saying this to slander or critique. I'm saying this for the literal THOUSANDS of people who, in good faith, shared their *personal stories* in good faith that have now been *literally erased* because their compassion and empathy didn't give him the *exact and precise* response he wanted.
---
After seeing the latest development I'm very irate.
Silence is violence. People's voices were erased.
Even if someone does re-upload the video all of the people who gave compassion and vulnerability regarding such a deeply personal and sensitive topic in an attempt to connect with him have been reduced to *nothing.*
Everyone deserved better.
I actually feel bad that I personally recommend to him reading The Celluloid Closet. In the end, though, what he did with it hoisted himself upon his own petard. If I had known about his earlier plagiarism accusations, I never would have told him about that book.
Thanks for sharing this. It does not surprise me that his queer community met him with compassion because that's what we generally do.
someone's youtube comments being deleted is not an act of violence. we can say it's bad that he's not being accountable without exaggerating
Right. So. For those unaware, the phrase "silence is violence" is a well-known protest statement (predating 'silence=death'). It's been used in the queer community for decades to mean (among other things) "I will not stand by."
Nuking a thread, then accusing the people in it of being awful to you and weaponizing your mental health leaving those individuals with *no way* to disprove the allegations is HARMFUL.
I'm not debating this.
The thing is James considers it a harassment when people ask him to take responsibility for what he did. Even if people say, 'we don't wish you harm, we hope you get well, that said this is not a true apology, you're avoiding responsibility' he will take that as a threat, as harassment and when he will tell a story of what happen he will claim that people obliterated him, targeted, hated on him when in fact all the comments I read were just from people expressing their disappointment in a justified way, I can't recall one genuinely hateful comment.
Thank you for speaking up about this, Jessie. Your content is always so deeply meaninful and well-researched. As a biromantic asexual woman I always felt like James Somerton viewed me as something lesser; I was someone who existed in the grey area outside of heteronormativy, but accordign to James' I wasn't queer enough to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community. His whole video on asexuality deeply hurt me as he infantilized us and thought that he could speak on our behalf. When asexual people began to call him out in his comment section we were attacked. Heck, I was even mocked for saying that I said Crowley and Aziraphel's relationship in Good Omens as a "beautiful homoromantic relartionship." He has made some very nasty fly-away comments about aspec people, bisexual women, and trans people that honestly triggered my feeling of self-loathing-- he treated us like we didn't deserve to exist or belong. I'm sorry, but I don't expect his apology--the damage has already be done. I hate to say it, but I do hope that he loses his viewership.
As a bisexual grayace who has seen many gatekeepy gay people like James, this is why I can't stand the community and only interact with people like me
I thought that Somerton would leave RUclips for about a year. He has been away for about a week.
He pulled down the video before 6am. And his patreon is still closed.
I am so terribly disappointed in him. I am sorry he is in so much pain.
I hope he is able to find peace and able to accept responsibility for his behavior.
Thank you for alwas trying to be a compassionate human being, and in doing so reminding the rest of us to do the same. People like Sommerton try to make our world less - smaller, darker, crueler, less open and safe and loving. You make our world more, even if you sometimes do it imperfectly (because we're all imperfect).
May the rest of the holiday season be gentler to you than the last few weeks have.
James just does not need to be online right now, both for himself and us. Thank you for making this video Jessie so I don't have to give him anymore views than I already have.
as someone who has been suicidal and used it as a manipulation tactic, you are not coming across as uncompassionate at all. I think you handled the topic really well, thanks as always for a great video
I agree, as another person who has felt that way and used it against others I think Jessie handles this topic really well. A person's suicidal thoughts and or actions should always be taken seriously, but as she said, you NEVER want to do an apology by framing it with that. It harms the people around you, it harms who you're apologizing to, and it harms yourself in such a big public situation like this.
I'm glad that you both have turned around and are making changes for yourselves. I've been on the opposite end of that manipulation, and seeing people who have reformed from that behavior gives me hope that those who have hurt me in the past can truly change. Proud of you guys!
Jessie, if you're worried about people saying you're trying to benefit from RUclips's attention economy: your commitment to Nebula clearly shows the opposite of this.
it’s absolutely insane that IDUBBZ had the best youtuber apology ever made. it was genuine, it centered the people he hurt, and there was no serious controversy which provoked his response. he just decided that he had done something wrong. if you told me about this like five years ago i would have lost my mind.
I know right? What a wild world we live in. A little bit of my faith in humanity was restored by that video.
And people were ANGRY at him....
Are people really against his apology?
Real answer? Because he
Didnt have to apologize for 99% of his content. I guess Tana content cop was a bit extreme but his comedy was never that extreme to begin with.
He couldve toned downed the content or pushed back instead of being bullied into submission. Theres nothing wrong with being more concious of the community youre fostering and there are ways to make sure youre not attracting too many extremists without sacrificing your entire channel. Idubbbz even kinda started doing that with the newer more videos centered around social commentary but somehow that was not enough.
Said many things that were right and decided to walk back everything while calling out his entire fanbase for enjoying it. From rational statements like "Either all of it is okay or none of it is okay" to milquetoast progressive all bigotry is actually realy bad. HES A COMEDIAN SAYING CONTEXT DOESNT MATTER FOR GODS SAKE. Even if you dont agree with me here you certainly can agree doing a complete 180 on your political views is not going to sit right with most of your fan base.
Lastly his growth doesnt feel genuine. Based on what he says in this apology this feels like just another phase that hes eventually going to either apologize for or lose all relevancy as his content loses everything that made it stand out in the first place. You want examples of people whos growth feels genuine? Look at maxmofoe or anything4views. These guys come from the same community and look at them now. Theyre more successful than ever making better content than ever and it took 0 apologies, 0 crying over how your content is evil and deplorable and 0 alienating of your fanbase. Thats what genuine growth looks like to me
@@alexisfreeze he had actually hurt people. he had stuff to apologize for. his story about meeting a fan that said he probably didn’t like trans people, seemed to really hurt him and put him on a new trajectory. if that kind of thing happened to me, saying the kinds of stuff he used to say, i would walk it all back too. that would be heartbreaking.
taking accountability is often called ingenuine by the sorts of people who don’t want those things framed as a thing which you should take account of. im not surprised you prefer “silent growth,” because hearing people describe exactly what they did wrong might make you think about your own behavior. of COURSE that’s an alienating experience, it should be. that’s how YOU grow, too, which he was trying to encourage.
when people try to change, directly stating your intentions is one of the most important parts. facing the things you did wrong, talking about the moments which changed your perspective. these are vital aspects of growth- in my opinion, if you can’t do these things, you haven’t grown at all.
that doesn’t mean that everybody NEEDS to do a public apology or whatever. to be honest, the other youtubers you mentioned aren’t really on my radar so they didn’t mean much to me here. but if you’re adverse to the actual Concept of taking accountability, if you’re suspicious on the face of it, i think that’s on you. i really mean that.
i’m not saying you’re the worst person in the whole wide world but if you’re uncomfortable about people disowning the sorts of things that you used to like, and growing ashamed of them, that DOES speak to your own internal emotions more than it speaks to theirs. you can’t use that alienation as proof that they’re faking their feelings. you can’t use your emotions to disprove their emotions.
@@tonoornottono
his treatment of old fans shows how little he understands empathy, calling them all freaks instead of realizing they could simply be in a similar position that he was, you know understanding why they think the way they do… aka empathy
a lot of ppl aren’t “just mad he doesn’t use slurs anymore” as they say. it’s the fact that he, like Ethan, decided to mature right when his content wasn’t profitable due to the transition into more liberal views on the platform. it’s possible that it could be genuine but a lot of people don’t think that bc of that paired with the fact that he seems completely miserable now & lost his personality. it’s not that he just stopped using slurs, he stopped doing weird entertaining shit.
there’s also the aspect of how he treated Froggy despite claiming to be “mature”. he didn’t deal with it in a professional mature manner & even put out information that wasn’t completely truthful which sent fans after Froggy - the same thing he claims to hate about his old content. he can absolutely act however he wants but it’s hard for a lot of people to argue that the way he dealt with the situation was mature or professional in any way.
I watched the first 45 seconds of his apology video, which BEGAN with him saying he just got out of the hospital, crying, and vaguely implying he attempted suicide, and I realized it was just going to be thirty more minutes of emotional manipulation. Like, this is EXACTLY the way abusive people respond when they're challenged, they threaten to kill themselves or use the fact that they have attempted it as a bargaining chip.
And like, I'm not unsympathetic to how he feels. People make shitty mistakes, people feel intense remorse, people get embarassed or humiliated, I understand all those feelings. But after his patterns of behavior I cannot possibly trust him to treat any viewers with any amount of responsibility in his "apology." I do hope he gets better but I'm not here to be gaslit by him.
I am so glad you are making this video. I don't think you are doing it for attention.
I have only ever supported 3 people on patreon, and you and he are two of them. So I am really emotionally invested in this conversation. Thank you for helping me to understand what is going on. Even in your anger, you explain things calmly and with clear reasoning.
Have a wonderful trip.
Safe travel
I started watching his "apology" when it popped up in my notifications (I forgot that I hadn't actually unsubbed to his channel), and I did immediately feel bad for him. I then realized that this was the emotional response he was looking for, and tried to be critical. But I didn't make it very far into it before I realized that this wasn't an apology at all. "I don't want this to become a sob story". Yes, James, that's exactly what you wanted. You wanted us all to sit there and collectively say "Oh, James, we're so sorry that being called out for your shitty work ethic and comments caused you to do something drastic, here's a cookie and a cup of cocoa and all is forgiven." Like I'd mentioned before, I only got into his work via his horror and Hollywood history videos, and had no idea about any of the rest until this all hit. Am I sorry he attempted to take his own life? Yes, and he should seek help for that. Do I feel bad that he did it because ge got called out for being a terrible person and he is looking to keep on doing said projects and possibly behavior? Not one bit.
Thanks for doing the work of watching and relaying what happened in his video, because I don't want to give him a single further view.
I somehow imagine he knows he is muddying the waters with his claims... and I say that the attempt (to muddy the waters)* alone is worth apathy at best and contempt from everyone else. No one else is responsible for his actions leading up to all this... he had been warned multiple times and continued anyway. Feeling sad and depressed because you got caught and it stuck this time, is no reason for anyone else to feel bad for you.
I just can't put a penny in James' pocket.
I'm sure queer creators will do full react videos - and I'll watch it there to ensure my dime goes to the community he victimized, instead of into his pocket.
Lucky for you there is reuploads if you REALLY want to watch it...but it's...pain
Matriarchetype did a live reaction whilst watching it - I saw it via her channel when I saw that Jessie had made a video regarding JS's apology but I couldn't find the apology on his channel.
@@brendaleelydon she straight up put the video on her patreon. that is also stealing content.
This video is so spot-on. My little brother died by suicide a couple years ago. Somerton's "apologies" and now his recent actions are making me absolutely livid. I've been reliving some dark sh!t in the past couple days. No matter if James actually went through with it or not, it's manipulative bs. Even him dying doesn't make him any less of a jerk, I'm sorry. It's tragic, but it doesn't wipe away all the hurt he caused; it makes it worse. Also, this notion that he wa actively being pushed over the edge by hbomb fans needs serious scrutiny. I will not blindly accept the notion that Harris fostered a community akin to k!w!farms or whatever. The people pointing fingers around are opportunistic clowns and they make my skin crawl. I'm so sorry about this week. None of this garbage is your fault. You've been a saint. It's kind of incredible how measured and thoughtful all your responses have been. Alright, take care of yourself!
Instant 'thumbs up' from me for using the word 'suicide' in your video, and not dancing around it. I have no idea how RUclips treats videos that contain that word, if they actually de-monetize it or if that's just a rumor. I'm sure you've heard about it. But sometimes, the best word is the best word, and you said it without hesitation. Kudos.
Its better for him and the rest of the community to stay out of content creation. I hope he gets better, but hes proven to be untrustworthy.
James is an adult, and he should be well aware that it is standard practice for plagarists to be blacklisted in any industry. Even if blacklisting isn't standard, no one would trust you anymore.
Not in business. He could very well succeed in business as a plagiarist. Controversial opinion but I don’t think we should hold content creators IN GENERAL as the “voices of civil rights activism.” Maybe cause I work in a community library in Puerto Rico so I’m more hands on and in a less individualized society, it’s unfair to people who are out there in the world fighting head on, for the people we put as the image of the “left” to be RUclipsrs, many who are living pretty comfortable lives compared to the common working class. If they help outside too great, but being a content creator shouldn’t make one’s voice matter more.
@@Jabberwocky112yeah, that's part of the reason people NEED to be able to hold copyright. People steal more maliciously more often and victimize others monetarily because they think they need it to live. Which, money is life, in this country. Homeless people are treated so horribly because they "failed" to procure enough money, then they are used as examples to everyone else to prove that if you don't make money, your life is a failure.
If you steal from someone else they are in a worse place mentally and physically. So stealing labor (writing takes a lot of labor) is seen as super disrespectful.
Copyright is a defense that people created against our capitalist society/nature.
I decided to watch this before I watch his video, because I wanted to be able to know what to expect. And I'm glad I came here first. CW just all the CW, don't read the rest of my comment if you're not ready to read some candid discussion of suicide.
That hits close to home. I've lost a friend to suicide. My child spent nearly a year in and out of emergency rooms and psych hospitals due to repeated attempts, and thankfully the situation is less dire now. But what it really brings to mind is my ex boyfriend years ago, who used threats of this to force me to do everything he wanted after we broke up; he literally said I was a murderer if I didn't do the things he demanded. And it fucked me up for years. It took so long for me to heal enough to learn that my ex boyfriend was an anomaly, and to learn that I could still feel love and compassion for people who were suicidal. Because for a long time I couldn't, because it brought me too close to my memories of that abuse and manipulation. I do know better now, and I've put it behind me as much as I think is possible.
So, James Somerton doing this really strikes a bad chord with me. If he really is feeling that way, he needs to seek support of his family, friends, and therapist. He cannot go to the people he has harmed for sympathy. That just is not acceptable. And the people he has harmed include everyone he stole from, and everyone he accepted money from under these false pretenses, and everyone he misled. He cannot put this on his victims.
I'm ngl this might sound kinda cruel, but I have a lot less sympathy for being being s-idal when they're in that state because their bad behavior was exposed. Especially when they try to use that state to gain sympathy.
I was banned for a community because of my own behavior. I made sure to not let the mods know I felt like that because I know how that makes people feel.
i've been involuntarily hospitalized on several occasions for suicide attempts. Personally, i feel the way he went about it cheapens suicide and mental illness.
@@purple-flowersbad enough if it was true, disgusting if it was a lie
@@neurosophy also, idk how the Canadian mental health system is but i was so doped up on Geodon (an antipsychotic and mood stabilizer) during my stay for months afterwards that i couldn't form a coherent thought and failed an entire semester of college. If he is in a similar state from the strong ass meds they give you, then he shouldn't've be on a camera for at least half a year
Using suicide as a cudgel, which does include how you speak on suicidal thoughts and actions you committed, is manipulative in different context. Jame's video does a perfect job at showing how flagrantly people throw it around. That being said, I fully believe that he attempted to but I wouldn't allow it to discredit the actions he actively committed since the start of his channel.
A@@purple-flowers
The thing about the whole "putting videos back online so he can use the proceeds from them to pay back the people he's wronged" thing is that we have to remember he's a business major and this is *exactly* how corporations react to wrongdoing. How many companies have we seen whose idea of restitution is something along the lines of "Okay, so we understand that our actions have harmed the environment, and we want to make amends, so why don't you buys this *new* product of ours and we promise we will use the money you give us to correct some of the harm we did." This is essentially the same as that.
It comes from the mindset that in a time of crisis, even one caused completely by your wrongdoing, the most important thing is to ensure that the company survives, that it keeps going one way or another. Which is what James is doing: he's scrambling to find a way to keep his business alive, to ensure he still has some kind of career when this is all over. If people aren't buying your product anymore, try to convince them that your product will be "ethical" now. That way your business still has a future. But that also prevents him from any kind of apology or accountability that might involve him admitting his career is over, that might involve him admitting to things that could cause his fans to not want to watch his videos ever again.
But it's also important to note that I dont think this rules out that he is genuinely feeling the things he says that he is, or is going through any of that emotion. I dont doubt that there are people who work in greenwashing corporations who genuinely believe that they are saving the planet. And I don't think it's impossible that James genuinely believed he was fighting for queer rights and liberation, in his own deeply misguided way. But the need to keep the business going always comes before that. After all, I can't help anyone if I'm bankrupt, can I?
honestly, it's incredibly helpful to have someone who has been affected by james to speak up about how his apology isn't acceptable. any of his watchers and patrons have been wronged, it's voices like yours - from those who have had personal experience with him - that hold a lot of weight in this. by you saying this isn't a good apology and isn't adequate to his victims, you're giving far more credibility than anyone who doesn't have as much experience.
JS did this to himself. It's sad that the fallout for his actions coming to light put him in a self-harm mental state. I'm more sorry that he chose to push out a formulaic non-apology video that caused yet more discord and consternation in our community. I hope, truly and honestly he has friends around him that can help him with his distress. But he no longer has standing to make statements and expect the community he harmed to allow him back.
It's sad commentary that when bad actors get called out for their actions, that one of the earliest steps is to produce an "apology" video. Whether or not JS was earnest in his contrition, he's already burned his credibility and any public display of remorse just cheapens the gesture.
This exactly. It's best he just leave the platform, and find a different career.
I wonder if he ever had the same companionate thoughts about the random queer people he got harassed and run out of the internet for daring analyze and criticize his videos...
So formulaic that I had to Google it to check it hadn't also been copy-pasted from somewhere
@@mittenista Don't you know? Tommy Tallorico is really proud for helping him write the script.
He's taken the apology video down just now! I searched for it while watching this video and then went to click on it after and it says 'This video has been removed by the uploader'! Not really surprising considering the response to to it
(Great video btw Jessie. Very fair and very empathetic. Thank you for your thoughts and for continuing to speak out for those harmed by James' actions ❤️)
He said all the misogyny and misinformation weren't his because he never wrote anything and then said there are videos that have no plagiarism at all and that he loves doing research.
What he actually meant by "research" is "reading other people's research".
What a year of unmasking, self or otherwise! Illuminaughti, Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, James Somerton,, John Fettermann... I hope there will be no more unmaskings for a while to comne till we've recovered from the aftermath! Just the same, I wish us all, especially you, Jesse, a great holiday season and an even better New Year! I am never going to subscribe to Somerton ever again. I've unsubscribed for way less!
This is unrelated but I didn’t have my glasses on for the first sizeable portion of this video and I went “oh, filming in front of your washing machine is a choice…” before putting them on and realizing it was a Cap shield under a shelf 💀